Let It Be Forgotten
by duffie83
Summary: Sookie is literally sucked into the past and stumbles upon new adventures involving her Fay heritage. I love the big blond Viking too, but this story doesn't feature him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N~ The Southern Vampire Mysteries and all characters therein belong to Charlaine Harris. I'm just stepping into her sandbox, er, swamp in the spirit of fun.**

**True Blood belongs to Alan Ball and HBO (and whoever else). **

**This fanfiction will be a happy meshing of both and can solidly be labeled AU, though it starts immediately after the Season 4 finale of TB. **

It had been a rough night for Sookie Stackhouse.

Not the kind when she came home with sore feet from a full house at Merlotte's, or even a secondhand crankiness from some jackass of a patron.

Nope.

It had been the kind of night, a mere collection of moments, that tend to shape a person's life. She'd come to a proverbial fork-in-the-road that would result in heartbreak no matter her choice.

Well, she'd gone for a third option and felt double the heartache as a result.

She'd walked away from the men she loved tonight. Both of them.

And wasn't that a fine pickle? She was only just coming to terms with the fact that it was indeed possible to be in love with two men at the same time. A younger Sookie raised on Gran's Southern Baptists ways would have shrunk from such a notion; there were words for such women. But that child was gone and in her place was a woman who had lived a great deal in a short time.

The Supe world would do that to you.

Releasing a weary sigh, Sookie stepped out from her kitchen to the back porch, a spiked iced tea in hand. She was in need of a little liquid consolation, but the thought lead to an image of first Eric and then Bill seeking their own versions with faceless women. It couldn't be helped. She'd freely given them her amped up fairy blood before departing, and it had gone a long way to healing their charred and battered bodies. But their thirst would be great. And even if she did still hold any sort of claim over either vamp, because of their very nature and needs, she couldn't begrudge them sustenance. But jealousy was not a creature of logic.

She sat for long hours, the night heavy and alive around her. The muggy Louisiana air was an old friend and the crickets lulled her to a pleasantly numb stillness. Somewhere in the distance a bull gator bellowed for a mate, and her lips tilted in a sad smile.

"You and me both, old fellow."

"Sookie dear, I know you've been under a lot of strain tonight. But if you start talking to yourself regularly, folks' tongues will really wag."

It said much for her state of mind that she barely startled as Gran appeared beside her on the splintered, creaking porch swing.

A wrenching sob escaped her and she leaned into her grandmother's, very real, very solid arms. She didn't care how or why. She was just deeply grateful. And for the first time in the long months since her gran's brutal murder, she completely let go.

Her tears soaked Gran's flowing white gown, the only thing marring its surface. The blood stains were gone.

She felt enveloped by pure love, and she realized the two of them were softly glowing. It seemed like she should be worried that they would attract the wrong kind of attention from whatever supernatural creatures prowled her woods. But she couldn't bring herself to care.

This was too good.

For long minutes they held each other, until Sookie's weeping gradually subsided.

Her mind kicked on again and several thoughts simultaneously skittered across her brain.

Had she died?

Did something or someone attack her and she'd crossed over?

Was it a dream?

Strangely she felt neither more or less apprehension for either option.

So be it.

As a little girl she'd asked their preacher why they said "amen" at the end of prayers. He'd been offended, saying little girls shouldn't ask such imprudent questions. Well, she didn't know what impudent meant either. But Gran had overhead and gave him a talking to right there in front of her about fostering children's natural curiosity. Gran told her amen meant, "So be it." She'd explained it meant God's will would be done no matter what, and by saying amen people were saying they accepted that.

Sookie didn't know how she felt about a divine creator anymore, but the phrase was exactly right.

Earlier tonight, while Eric and Bill had been tied up, nearly burning to death, Gran and other spirits had appeared. It had been so hard to watch her fade away, to hardly get to speak with her. It had felt like she was losing her all over again.

Like always she'd had to push the heartache aside so she could tend to Bill and Eric; deal with yet another supernatural crisis.

But somehow, Gran was here now and the two of them were together again. Death. A dream. Whatever.

So be it. And thank you, whoever, whatever brought her here.

Gran reached for Sookie, her two palms cradling her face.

"My Sookie-girl. I'm so proud of you."

Sookie's face revealed her confusion, "For leaving Bill and Eric?"

"For everything, sweetheart. You've dealt with so much lately. And you've grown so much. You're not a little girl anymore, but a woman who is able to make very hard choices."

She felt undeserving of the praise. Ashamed. Gran didn't know everything, didn't know the way she'd cavorted with first Bill and later Eric right under this roof.

She started to utter a protest and began to explain, but Gran shook her head.

"No, Sookie, no. I won't judge you for that. We love. There's nothing to be ashamed of in that." Sookie felt overwhelmed, only belatedly remembering her powers came as a result of Gran's infidelity. It was the first time she was in her grandmother's presence, looking into her dark eyes, with the knowledge burning inside of her.

A final piece of innocence chipped away and shattered. But her love for this woman who had raised her remained.

Smiling now, Sookie said, "I love you Gran. You've been so very, very special to me."

It felt so good to say the words, so cleansing.

A tender smile graced Gran's face, "I know sweetheart. I always knew. But I'm not here tonight for goodbyes or final words. They've let me come to you, to ease your travels."

"What do you mean?" Sookie knew she should feel trepidation, but her joy was too great.

"Sookie, there is so much that we don't understand, all of us. About life. About death. About time."

"Time?"

"I was there the day you were born, you know. Your mama wouldn't let me be in the room for the birthin', but I was right there when they brought you out, a squalling pink thing wrapped up in a little yellow blanket. I held you for the first time, and I fell in love right there and then."

Sookie smiled gently but waited.

Gran continued, "But that wasn't the first time I met you. No. Years before I was out hanging the laundry, wishing Finton would step out of them woods truth be told. And for a minute I thought maybe he would. The air shimmered like it would before he would appear. But instead of a Fey, a human, a young woman walked towards me. It was you Sookie-girl, maybe a little older than you are now." Shaking her head in wonder, Gran said, "Gracious, the talk we had that day."

Now completely bewildered, tranquility all but gone, Sookie cried, "But that doesn't make any sense!" Breaking a long practice of never invading family members' minds, Sookie pushed into Gran's consciousness. That she was a spirit didn't seem to matter, and the memory of that summer day was clearly transmitted to her mind's eye. She knew before Gran said the words.

"Sookie, you weren't coming to me from another place or dimension. You came to me from another time."


	2. Chapter 2

Gran's words hung between them, but Sookie couldn't yet respond.

The image of herself, decades before her own birth, burned too clearly in her brain.

What struck her the most, kept her silent and pondering, was the soft happiness that had radiated from that woman. The woman she had been? Would someday be?

She wanted that quiet fulfillment.

It would never come to her in this life, in this place.

Bill and Eric would never leave her be. And really, she knew her limitations. It was likely some rainy night would find her driving into Shreveport for a night of comfort in Eric's arms. Or a Suped-up critter would attack her in her home, and Bill would be right there like always. Then he'd wind up in her bed, like always.

But it wouldn't be enough. Ever. She'd live with a constant ache, an emptiness that could never be filled. She'd stagnate, and the rot would spread to other parts of her life. It wasn't in her to love in half-measures.

"Am I supposed to go there? To that…place?"

"Well, Sook. I don't know much about 'supposed to' anymore. I guess partly we get dealt our hands and partly we live with the choices we make. But that day, that Sookie told me to come to you. To tell you to be ready and open." Gran paused here significantly, "To tell you not to be afraid."

Sookie's chin rose at these words, and with a stiff pride she said, "Gran, earlier tonight I battled a powerful witch. I've fought against vampires and won. An ancient goddess tried to kill me, but I'm the one that walked away…" her voice broke a little as she continued, "and Rene, he came for me….after he killed you. But I survived. I know about fear, and I know about not letting it win..."

Gran let her finish, but as Sookie tapered off she said "Sweetheart. I'm not talking about bravery in the face of adversity, 'cause child, you've got that in spades." Gran gave her a proud smile. "No Sook. I'm talking about the fear of change. You stay here in this house because you always have. You work as a waitress, and the good Lord knows it's a worthy job, but you have it in you to do more. You know, I used to think you stayed for me. To take care of an old woman. But even after I was gone you stayed bound to this place. Why Sookie?"

Protests rose to Sookie's lips. Such an unfair question when the answer should have been obvious. Stackhouses had lived here for more than a hundred years. It was her duty, her obligation and place in this life. How could Gran, a longtime member of the Descendents of the Glorious Dead, encourage her to break a longstanding family tradition? And never, not once, had Gran belittled her job at Merlotte's. Her mantra had been there was pride to be found in a hard day's work and folks should be thankful they had any sort of job at all.

Why, it was almost like the specter before her wasn't Gran at all.

And it wasn't.

Cold, stabbing knives of terror pierced Sookie's heart as she stared into those beloved brown eyes, eyes that upon close inspection held no traces of Gran's humor and love.

The deception was the purest evil Sookie had ever known.

Her loss and fear became overwhelmed by outrage.

How dare it? How fucking-dare it impersonate her Gran?

Reaching out and clasping the creature's hands in her own, red light, nearly blinding in its intensity, shot from her palms and into the trickster's.

Shock registered on the weathered face, with its every line and crease achingly familiar, for a full second. Long enough for the two to make eye contact with the truth between them. Then the being burst into flames. The heat wave from the blast caused the fine hairs around Sookie's forehead to dance and flicker, but she was otherwise untouched by the blast. At least physically.

She didn't even have it in her to cry.

A breeze picked up and fluttered the ashes around her.

How had it managed? Christ on a crutch, it had even smelled like Gran.

But she should have known. It had been solid. But she'd wanted it to be true so very badly.

And it had been trying to persuade her to go through some sort of vortex. One that was just visible because of shimmering air. That had been its mission; she knew it in her gut.

Well, that, and one opened up before her, right there in her backyard thirty feet from where she sat.

Dread gathered in her stomach even as she marveled at its beauty.

It was like a giant kaleidoscope, distorting images in the distance with its transparent body.

The vortex, the doorway, emitted a steady soothing hum. _Huh, kinda like a giant bug zapper_, Sookie thought.

It seemed like she should probably run. Maybe the creature's stories about time travel were true, maybe not. But if it had wanted her to go through that, she knew she should avoid it at all costs.

Fighting against an unnatural lethargy, she heavily got to her feet and tried to make it through her screen door.

Perhaps the vortex had a consciousness, because it seemed to taunt her by allowing her to just reach the door handle before unleashing powerful winds that sucked her, screaming and struggling, into its depths.


	3. Chapter 3

Sookie registered several things at once.

She was prone on the cold, slick ground. Her face was buried in mud, and not the good spa kind either.

Night critters were still making their noises, so she was pretty sure she was still in Bon Temp. What could the odds be of landing in some other swampy realm?

And she was pissed off. Royally P.O.'ed.

Struggling to her feet, she wiped away fistfuls of sludge and blinked frantically to clear her eyes.

She vaguely noticed her front porch, hell, her whole house was gone. She was surrounded by thick forest and off in the distance, with the help of starlight, she could see the reedy bank of the river with its familiar curve.

This was home.

But not.

The landscape was untouched by human hands, virgin and lush. Wild.

But all of this registered in the back of her brain. Her immediate thoughts revolved around the Gran-creature.

Palms flaring red, illuminating her in a fiery circle, she wished she could blast it again.

Betrayal, sharp and bitter stabbed through her.

She had wanted it to be Gran so very badly. To hear Gran utter those words of love and acceptance, to verbalize one last time to her grandmother just how important she'd been to her.

The outrage inside of her was like a living thing, clawing at her guts.

Needing an outlet, a release, she shrieked and swung her right hand wide and a fireball erupted from it.

She watched the burning globe shoot through the night air and blast a tree twenty yards away.

Thunderstruck at this new ability, she stood still for several moments registering the damage.

Finally, she crossed the distance to the oak, her flip-flops squishing in the spongy earth. Things felt wetter than she was used to, even the air was heavier with additional moisture.

The fireball had missed the base of the tree, and instead hit a thick branch that it had sliced through like a laser. The branch now lay on the ground, its blackened edge still smoking.

Sookie knew this tree, with its quirky knotted base; she and Jason had carved their initials into it as children. She ran her palm over the untouched surface.

Time travel?

It somehow made it worse to think that there'd been any truth at all to the creature's words.

Let it be a deceiver, because if it wasn't, not fully, what else had been real?

Briefly remembering the healing white light, the feeling of pure love, Sookie cursed her own weak heart. She'd been in enough minds to know sometimes people wanted something so bad, so deeply, that they'd try to will it into being by sheer forceful stubbornness.

She banished the image of the happy Sookie she'd glimpsed in the being's mind. Later…

Dropping her hand from the tree trunk, she allowed herself to fully take in her setting and situation.

Folks in the South are mighty proud of their heritage. Maybe she couldn't name all of the countries in Europe and her geography was limited to what she'd picked up in fiction, but Bon Temp's founding date had been drilled into her from an early age.

1836.

And the Stackhouses had been in the area for more than fifty years before that. Stackhouse was an English surname, and the ancestor Sookie found the most fascinating had been an immigrant exiled by a judge who'd sentenced him to "death or Louisiana." Family legend went he'd had to give it some thought.

The first one-room cabin had been built on the Stackhouse homestead in 1830.

So _here_ was sometime before then…if she allowed herself to entertain such a notion.

She walked over and plopped down on the fallen branch. Her backside, at least, was mud free and she'd like to keep it that way.

Stretching out her internal radar, she scanned the immediate vicinity for people. Nope. Not a single thought wave. No "voids" either as she thought of vamps, the only creatures immune to her telepathy. At least to an extent. Maybe she couldn't read them, but it allowed her to sense their presence, a definite advantage.

So what now?

It's not like the old adage of staying put when lost applied here.

If she waited maybe the vortex would open back up. And maybe it would transport her back to her time. Or maybe she'd walk right into some T-Rex's waiting jaws.

Feeling a restlessness, she gave into it and started to follow the river downstream.

The reeds and growth were thick, hard on her barely clad feet.

After passing a second floating log with eyes just above water level, she spotted a game trail leading off into the woods. Pausing, her mind flashed to water moccasins likely on the riverbank.

Why not?

Verging right, she left the river and headed into the trees, her path illuminated by a sliver of moon and the bright stars.

**A/N~ Thanks to those who have taken the time to review, much appreciated tips hat. If you haven't yet had the chance, take a moment and read up on Louisiana's history. It's fascinating. Of course, this being fiction, I've taken some liberties with it (and will likely continue to do so). Best wishes and happy reading. **


	4. Chapter 4

Long before Sookie had realized very real monsters tread upon the earth, she'd been afraid of trees as a child. Just at night. Just when their branches took on the look of grasping, clawing limbs and shadows revealed malevolent faces in the detours of their trunks. When daylight returned they were once again benign beings, natural jungle gyms to climb and run through with her brother, the pair of them giggling and reveling in the sun's beams that pierced through the forest's canopy.

Apparently vestiges of that childhood fear remained, because as she stumbled through the dark woods her eyes were continuously drawn to the high tree branches. Not because she feared boogiemen, but because Sookie Stackhouse, born and raised in Northern Louisiana, knew about mountain lions. Bon Temp High School, home of the Lions, had a stuffed mountain lion in the trophy display case at the entranceway to the gym. It's taxidermied body and glass eyes were dusty and sad looking, but its size remained impressive. As did its teeth, its mouth open in an eternal snarl. They were native to the region, though a live one hadn't been seen in decades. In her time.

For her, here, she had to assume their presence was a distinct possibility.

They liked to perch on high branches, jumping down on unsuspecting prey.

Well, she was suspecting damnit. She hadn't survived all of the shit she'd been through these last few years to wind up some critter's dinner.

Mind flashing to various vamps and the way her Fey blood pushed them into an intoxicated frenzy, she mentally reiterated, _any _critter.

Unfortunately, fixation on dangers from above prevented her from noticing the subtly mounded pile of leaves and twigs in her path.

She barely registered the change beneath her feet from the compact dirt of the trail to looser, moist materials before she fell.

It was too late to do anything except claw desperately at the slick wall of the pit as she descended, a single pitchy shriek escaping her throat.

Her frantic hands dislodged a large stone, and it slammed into her forehead a second after she landed hard on her back.

Pain, intense and blinding, shot through her whole being.

The already murky night became utter blackness.

Sookie regained consciousness in stages. Even through her still closed eyelids she felt the warmth and brightness of sunlight. Thank you God.

She was submerged in at least six inches of water and though there was still a consuming ache in her head, she was momentarily distracted from it by the soggy discomfort of her position.

She felt gritty and grungy, and when she cringed in distaste she felt dried blood crinkle on her forehead.

Tentatively she opened her eyes.

Far above her she saw tree limbs with leaves gently shimmying in a breeze and glimpses of clear blue sky beyond.

From this perspective the pit seemed at least ten feet deep. Definitely manmade. Fuck.

Tilting her head to the side, gently due to the throbbing, her breath caught at what she saw.

Wooden spikes pointing upward, a half dozen of them. All sharpened to deadly points with what looked like lightly charred tips.

She'd missed being impaled on one by perhaps two inches.

Like the deer four feet away from her.

The spike had pierced its throat, and its glazed sightless eyes were fixed on some point just behind her.

A few insects buzzed around the carcass, drawn by the blood, and suddenly Sookie felt a maddening itching on her face, neck, and the exposed skin of her arms. Had been feeling it, but hadn't realized it through all of the other aches.

Mosquitoes.

Apparently she'd offered them quite the buffet while she was unconscious.

She was just mustering up the oomph to try sitting up when she registered activity above.

People.

With some success she managed to weakly focus her telepathy.

Men.

Two of them.

Their thoughts were not English. But lucky enough, folks tend to think in images and emotions as much as words.

From what she could read, they were hunters coming to check their trap.

One was impatient, anxious to return to a woman, and Sookie could see her in his mind, round with child, smiling, apple cheeked. His wife. He wanted to return with fresh meat for her.

Another man felt older, somehow, in a way Sookie had come to recognize in the elderly. Some older people would take on a deliberate slowness of thought, purposeful and measured. She'd always wondered if that's what wisdom meant, just being able to get beyond the impetuousness of youth.

He was contemplating how much deer hide his granddaughter would need for a wedding dress. Sookie could nearly feel the leather pouch filled with seeds, shells and porcupine quills he'd been painstakingly collecting. When he had enough hides to give to her, he would present the pouch to her as well and she would use the items to decorate the new garment.

Though she couldn't see their faces, she could feel his heart smiling.

It gave her the courage to shout out, to alert them to her presence before they gazed down at her in complete surprise.

They were just men, men with loved ones and responsibilities.

Hopefully with kindness and mercy toward strangers, too.

Her first attempt was feeble, a pathetic mewl through her cracked, bleeding lips.

Swallowing past the scratchy dryness of her throat, she tried again.

"Hello? Help please!"

That was better.

Shuffling sounds, and then two brown faces peered down at her from above.

**A/N~ For you Uncle, 16 years today. Your grandchildren are beautiful. **


	5. Chapter 5

Sookie registered their fear as they stood looking down at her. Her own worry spiked as she saw herself reflected in their minds; she looked bad. Battered and weak.

Neither man was necessarily afraid of her, but the young one was contemplating if this was a trap of some sort with her as the decoy. His eyes scanned the area for ambushers.

The older man was wondering if she'd die soon, and what it would mean for his village if it was discovered a white woman had met her end in their territory. It would violate the hard-won treaty; these last years of peace could come to an end. Through her bleary eyes, even across the distance separating them, Sookie saw him shudder.

Upon seeing her, English words had bled into their thoughts. It was a phenomenon Sookie had noticed in other bilingual folks too. Being monolingual herself, figuring a spattering of French Creole didn't count, she'd always wondered about the dreams of people who spoke multiple languages.

Feeling her mind wander further, she forced herself to focus.

_Get it together Sook!_

The pounding in her head was worse, and she was so very thirsty.

A sad state for a woman lying in a giant pool of water.

Pushing words through her parched throat, she managed "Hello. Please don't be afraid. My name is Sookie Stackhouse and I don't mean y'all any harm."

The older man spoke in halting English, "Are you alone here?"

"Yes."

He took her in with his gaze and she felt his acceptance of her words.

"Why are you here?"

She was able to answer truthfully, "I got lost, and I just kept walking. It was dark and I didn't see the pit."

"Your people will come looking for you." A statement, not a question.

Swallowing again, and despite the general benevolence she sensed in these two, she knew she was about to take a risk. "I don't have people. I am alone."

It was true. The full force of her own words slammed into her as the two men above her debated, and a half sob escaped her lips. Alone, isolated and lost in time.

The noise drew their focus again, and the elder spoke, "We will help you. We do not mean you harm either."

Giving him her best attempt at a smile, she fought the blackness that danced around her consciousness, trying to pull her back under.

She thought maybe she had a concussion, and wasn't it bad to fall asleep with them? For the life of her she couldn't explain why though. Heavy lids drooped down and then startled open as the younger man slid down the pit landing next to her.

Bits of water splashed her face, cool and reviving.

"What's your name?"

"Kannakli." From the barrage of images he broadcast, Sookie knew this was one name among many for him, but the one he could safely share with a stranger. Thinking of Marnie evoking Antonia, he was right, his people were right, to give power to names.

Two muscular arms reached beneath her, lifting. She stifled a groan, not wanting to be seen as unappreciative or whiny. But even her _hair_ hurt.

Holding her high, he lifted her to the older man waiting above. He was laying flat on the ground, reaching down, and was just able to grip her under her armpits and lift her the rest of the way out of the pit.

It hadn't been ten feet deep after all.

He gently laid her on the ground and started scanning her injuries.

Grateful, she reached one hand over and laid it on his arm, managing to get out a murmured "Thank you" before succumbing to darkness. She'd been looking into his eyes so hadn't seen the small burst of white energy she'd unknowingly shot from her fingertips into him at the place their skin touched.

Passed out, she missed the way his eyes widened in first fear and then wonder. He stretched his arm wide in front of him, splayed the fingers and energetically flexed them.

No pain.

Yukpa had lived with nearly constant aches in the joints of his hands for years. It made collecting small items, like seeds for his granddaughter, painful. But he would use his wife's poultices at night, which did more toward making her feel better than easing his agony. And he ignored the hurt the best he could and carried on.

But now it was completely gone.

A huge grin split his face and he stared down at the bedraggled white woman.

Her injuries were not as bad as they had first seemed. She would live.

And he banished his plans of taking her to the nearest English homestead.

She had been delivered to his people, a blessing.

They would take this medicine woman to their village.

"Old man, help me get out of here!"

Annoyed to have his thoughts interrupted by his son-in-law, Yukpa shouted down, "Now that I have a strong grandson on the way, what use is there for you?"

Chuckling, Kannakli replied, "I know you old man, you'll want more. And Nanaiya wants her dinner. She has been talking about deer stew for three days."

Delighted that both of his daughters had found their heart mates, one married, one soon to be, he still mercilessly teased, "Nanaiya could easily cut the blanket and find another man. But you are right, it is very important not to keep a pregnant woman waiting."

Peering over the edge, he could see Kannakli had secured two ropes around the deer. Not the ropes his people made, woven from longs strips of reeds, but the thicker kind they'd get from trading with the whites. Kannakli tossed the two ends up and then with Yukpa's help was able to pull himself from the pit. Then, working together, the men pulled the deer up as well.

Kannakli glared at the woman, his impatience to return home obvious.

"She will bring us trouble. Where will we take her?"

"Home. With us."

Completely startled by the suggestion, Kannakli waited for further explanation.

None came.

He finally protested, "It will be said we kidnapped her, abducted her. It will bring angry whites to our village."

Yakpa's response was a simple, "No." Kannakli knew his father-in-law well, and knew there must be a good reason for his decision. He would accept it for now, but was also willing because it meant a direct, faster trip home. Nanaiya was due for her labor any time.

They'd brought one travois expecting to haul a deer home. Working quickly and efficiently, they cut down two small saplings and used hides and twine to construct another.

They placed the woman on one, the deer on the other. Yakpa held his water container to the woman's lips, and she swallowed the small amount reflexively. It seemed she would survive.

The deer was heavier, so Kannakli took that travois, lifting its poles to a comfortable place on his shoulders and began the journey home, the backs of the poles dragging the ground behind him.

Yakpa, with the woman, followed.

**A/N~ So I found it completely cool that in Choctaw culture, when a man and a woman married, he presented her with a blanket. If she ever wanted a divorce, she would cut the blanket in half and send him on his way. Why do we make it so complicated in this day and age? Guess I have heard stories about chainsaws and couches sawed in half. ;o) **


	6. Chapter 6

Sookie awoke to the soft darkness of early dawn and somebody snoring.

She was in an enclosure, but muted light outlined the large uncovered entranceway.

Memories of the vortex, stumbling through the dark woods, and the deer pit quickly worked their way through her brain.

Sitting up, the movement caused her head to ache. But it was a dull throbbing, tolerable and much better than earlier.

Tentatively she reached a shaky hand to her forehead and felt the mother of all goose eggs. The wound was not bandaged, but someone had obviously cleaned it. Holding her fingers just under her nose she detected an herbal smell, something familiar, but she couldn't quite identify it. As she dropped her hand, one finger brushed her lips and she realized a thick coat of some sort of grease had been applied to their cracked surface.

Her tongue darting out, she recognized the heavy taste of animal fat. She'd grown up making pie crusts out of lard but it had never occurred to her how effective it could be as chap stick. _Mostly effective_, she mentally corrected, as the taste fully permeated her mouth and she fought against nausea.

The snoring continued, loud and stuttering, soundly nearly painful. Underneath the racket she could hear another person's soft and steady breaths.

She sat up taller, and through the dim but ever brightening light she could see their forms tucked under a light blanket, two silver haired heads poking out. It was the old man from earlier and a woman she assumed was his wife.

A grin split Sookie's face when she realized the hearty snores were coming from the woman, who judging by the tiny bump she made under the blanket, must be a petite little thing.

Nearly reflexively, her telepathy reached across the short distance separating them and pushed its way into the woman's mind. Sookie caught glimpses of sunshine reflecting off of water and a child's laugh before she forcefully made herself withdraw. These folks had been nothin' but kind to her as far as she could tell. Invading a person's dreams, it was the worst kind of trespassing.

Suddenly she was hit by a very urgent need to pee.

Cautiously rising to her feet, only battling a slight dizziness, she headed to the doorway and stepped outside.

Cripes! She was in an honest to goodness Indian village!

Feeling like an extra from The Last of the Mohicans, Sookie looked around her in amazement. There were at least two dozen huts spread out across the clearing. They were domed structures covered with mats of woven grass. Many had opened entranceways like the one she had just left, others had blankets as doors or more woven mats pulled down as coverings. Smoke wafted out from a few, wispy trails escaping from the very center of the roofs where there must have been some type of opening. 

_Huh_, Sookie thought, _skylight and chimney_.

Fires meant people, people awake and filled with questions and eyes blazing with fear or curiosity.

Not quite up for any sort of confrontation yet, she desperately looked around for a place to relieve herself.

Not spotting any type of Native outhouse, or not recognizing it if she did, she skittered to a patch of trees as quickly as her now bare feet and pounding head would allow her.

Making it to decent covering, she eyed the plants and vines warily. That's all she needed was poison ivy up her butt. Assuming the stance known to ladies everywhere, at least in her century, the one employed in public restrooms that kept her hiney from making contact with anything, she quickly took care of business.

Sighing in relief, she walked back into the village more slowly, now able to fully study her surroundings. At first glance the huts had appeared randomly scattered across the open field. Now she saw they actually encircled a central lodge of some sort.

The chief's house?

Town hall?

Sensing eyes upon her, she turned a slow half circle until she saw that the blanket of one dwelling was held slightly open by a tiny fist. Two chocolate eyes peeked out at her and she smiled at the child. The blanket quickly dropped as the little one retreated.

Feeling decidedly _other_, though she hadn't even spoken with anyone yet, she made her way back to her hosts…only to be intercepted by a pack of yapping and growling dogs.

She'd always been more of a cat person; dogs had never liked her much and she'd often wondered if they could smell that she was something just a little more than human.

_Well, they were right_ she thought as she fought against the surge of power she felt in her palms. _Not now Sookie, not now_, even as one particularly aggressive dog lunged forward, snapping and just missing her foot.

A voice shouted out a command, and the lead dog immediately retreated, the others following.

Glancing up from her would-be attackers, she saw a dozen people, men, women, and a handful of children surrounding her, and more emerging from their homes.

Sookie Stackhouse was no stranger to feeling different.

For most of her life she'd felt separate from the human race, and it had only been these last years interacting with Supes that she'd come to realize normal only existed as a setting on her washing machine.

But this was her first time as a racial minority.

It was honestly something she'd never realized before, this discomfort that could exist, since she'd always belonged to the ethnic majority. People are people; she believed that fervently in her heart of hearts. But it was disconcerting to look out into a sea of faces and know that she was unlike them. To wonder what their perception was of her with her pale skin.

Many faces were guarded, though none hostile. A few were openly curious. One woman smiled at her, and Sookie gratefully returned it.

A man stepped out from the group and approached her. Sookie was taken aback to realize that, unlike the others, he was dressed in European clothing.

His coppery skin and flowing dark hair emphasized the whiteness of his linen shirt.

He wore snug leather breeches that emphasized muscular thighs…and other bits.

Face flaming, Sookie noticed his feet were clad in beaded leather moccasins before she jerked her face back up to meet his eyes.

Gorgeous, startling blue eyes.

Perhaps mistaking her flush for fear, he held out one hand, palm extended and said, "Don't be afraid. You are welcome here." His English was fluent, not the halting phrases spoken by Kannakli and Yakpa.

"Thank you kindly, but where is here?"

"You're in a Choctaw village, Pooscoostekale."

Knowing she'd butcher it if she tried repeating it, she said, "How far is this village from Shreveport?"

At his blank stare, she thought, _Oh God, Shreveport's not even a city yet_.

_Try again Sook_, "How far is it from New Orleans?"

"Several long days walking," and then his tone took a sharper edge, "there are not any white settlements nearby either."

Realizing she was being offensive by implying she was in a hurry to get away, she hurriedly replied, "Oh, no! I didn't mean anything like that. I'm just good and truly lost. Just tryin' to figure out where I am."

He nodded, and Sookie could see him accept her words.

Knowing it would sound crazy, but needing to ask it anyway, she said, "_When_ are we, what year is it?"

Dark eyebrows shot up, and she was once again struck by the vivid blueness of his eyes. _Like sapphires_, she had time to think, before he responded, "By the white man's calendar, it is October of the year 1829."

"Thank you." Her Southern manners were too deeply ingrained to allow her to stand before him, rude and dumbstruck. But she felt like she'd been hit by a Mack truck.

From her side a hand reached over and settled on her arm. With shock still numbing her reflexes, it took her a few seconds to look over into Yakpa's smiling face.

"Welcome, Sookie." He drawled her name out in a strange way, very different from Bill's interpretation, and it brought a small smile to her face and pulled her back into the moment.

One of Yakpa's arms was still settled on hers, but with his other he waved the crowd away, loudly spouting several phrases in Choctaw.

Returning his focus to her, he said, "You very hungry. Come. My wife makes breakfast."

Her stomach rumbling at the thought of food, she followed him back into his hut.

It was only later that it occurred to her she hadn't picked up even a single thought from Blue Eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

Yakpa's wife Ohoyo was a tiny terror, a sweetly nurturing, pushy tiny terror.

Sookie had been with the Choctaw for a week, and during that time Ohoyo had kept her wounds salved, stomach full, and hands busy.

Not that Sookie minded the actual tasks; she'd never been one to stay idle long. What chafed was Ohoyo's matriarchal bossiness; it stirred something in Sookie vaguely akin to adolescent resentment.

"No! No! You do it wrong! Like this." Ohoyo was showing her how to weave mats from reeds they'd collected earlier in the day.

Biting back an acrid response and readjusting the strips to match Ohoyo's, Sookie asked, "Is this better?"

Ohoyo's sharp eyes scanned Sookie's work even as her fingers continued rapidly weaving her own mat. "Is okay."

_Gee thanks._

Knowing she was close to losing it, she rose to her feet.

"Where you going?"

"I'll be back," she said over her shoulder as she quickly walked away from the protesting older woman.

They'd been sitting in front of Yakpa's and Ohoyo's hut, weaving in the bright afternoon sunlight. Other people, mostly women and the elderly were engaged in similar tasks. Children ran throughout the village, shrieking and laughing. Yakpa and Kannakli and many other men were out hunting in the forest.

She received a few looks crossing the village, but no one tried to detain her. Two nights ago she'd discovered that most of the villagers thought Yakpa meant to take her as a second wife. Torn between amusement and horror, she'd questioned Yakpa about it. With a wily grin he assured her that was not his intentions, and he'd mentally broadcast an image so strongly Sookie couldn't help but pick it up. He was imagining Ohoyo cutting off his manly bits and boiling them in a stew. Laughing in relief, she accepted people would always make assumptions. And for now it kept them from questioning her presence.

Sookie headed back to the river where they'd gathered reeds earlier in the day. She'd spotted some Muscadine vines heavy with berries in a clearing by the water's edge. Sighing wistfully at the thought of cool Muscadine wine served out of a chilled mason jar, she'd just have to settle for the grapes themselves.

Arriving at the river, she was relieved to discover the area deserted.

And the water looked divine. It was hot and muggy for October, and Sookie felt sticky and gritty. She smelled like animal fat and sweat, as best she could tell, and a solid layer of gray grime was stuck under her fingernails.

It hadn't been her initial game plan, but she decided on a quick swim. She reached out with her telepathy to scan her surroundings, wanting to make sure she was really alone.

Assured that her only company was the blackbirds up in the trees, squawking and kickin' up a fuss at each other, she stripped the smock-like dress Ohoyo had provided along with her panties.

The poor things had seen better days. Leaving the dress on the bank, she carried her undies with her a few feet into the water, dunked them, and scrubbed them between her two hands to clean them as best she could. Satisfied, she tossed them back on the grassy bank by the dress to dry in the sun.

She walked farther out into the water and felt the sandy bottom drop out from under her. Swimming now, the current was gentle. She dunked fully under the water and scrubbed the greasy feeling from her hair. The villagers bathed here, but she hadn't yet worked up the gumption to join them. It just wasn't in her right now, to strip in front of folks. But that modesty might bleed away, she allowed, if she was stuck here for a long time. Many women walked around bare breasted, others in smocks like she wore. How long would it take for her to be nonchalant about nudity?

Dating Bill hadn't done the trick, nor her short time with Eric. And both vamps, maybe vampires in general, were beyond such matters. Hell, she still colored up seeing shifters return to their human forms.

Dismissing her thoughts, she reveled in the cool water beneath her. A breeze kicked up, and the rush of air caused her nipples to bead. Reaching with one hand, she cupped her own breast and lightly ran two fingers across the tip. It hardened further and heat pooled low in her belly. For a moment she surrendered to the burning, and pinched the delicate pink nub between her thumb and index finger, squeezing and rolling gently.

With a cry of frustration, she rolled over in the water and paddled back to shore.

_Great Sook, just great. So what that you've time traveled 180 years into the past. Your biggest problem is you're a horndog. _

Reaching the bank, she wriggled into her still damp panties, grimacing at their clammy feel on her skin.

She was just bending over to pick up her dress when something reflective and silver whizzed by her head.

With a startled cry she looked behind her and saw a hatchet imbedded in the soft bank, the blade between a water moccasins head and its five foot body. Blank reptilian eyes stared at her as its tongue shot out one final time before lying still.

Shooting her head around, Blue Eyes stood less than an arm's length away.

Concern was written on his features, but also something else.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" Knowing she should be grateful, but was beyond it because at that moment she feared him more than the serpent.

He was still a blank to her, not a blip on the radar. At least vamps felt like _something_, a void, but she at least knew they were there. What the fuck was he?

"I came out here for the same reason you did. To get away from everyone. To wash up. As to what I am, that's a much longer explanation."

Unsurprised that he could read her thoughts, she stood up straighter in a battle stance, and lifted her now glowing palms higher, prepared to fight.

She'd only met him the one time, her first morning in the village. He'd left the same day to translate between the Whites and another village. She'd dismissed him from her thoughts.

She should have been more wary.

Seeing her hands, he smiled. It caused anger to crackle through her, and her palms flared red before returning to their soft white light.

His eyes dropped from her face and scanned her bare breasts, and then slowly moved to her stomach and legs. He even studied her feet for a moment before returning his gaze to hers.

He lost the smile somewhere during his perusal, and though Sookie held his eyes which betrayed nothing, she could see from her peripheral vision he was affected, er, really affected. Those breeches were flat-out indecent, really.

And the guy had just saved her life.

Going from furious to mortified in half a second, she acted. "Okay, you know what, I think we're off to a bad start. If you don't mean to blow me up or kill me or whatever, let's try this again." She said it as she reached down for her dress, and quickly dropped it over her head and covered her body. She tried to disregard her own flaming face.

"My name is Sookie Stackhouse. I'm part Fey, though I guess you already know that, and I'm lost. Really, really lost."

This time his grin lacked a mocking edge, and he replied, "To the Whites my name is Ethan McDowell, to the Choctaw my name is Talako. I'm part Fey as well, through my father's side. He taught me well before he died, about blocking thoughts and reading other Fey. Have you never had a teacher?"

Feeling strangely abashed, she replied, "Well, no, not really. I only just discovered I was part fairy recently. Growing up, there was no one to really talk about it with. I just tried to keep folks from knowing I was different."

Giving a nod, he said, "I can help you, if you want. Teach you what my father shared."

Sookie was overwhelmed at the generous offer so easily given. Where was he a decade ago?

"I'd like that very much."

"We can start training tomorrow." Then he gestured to the snake. "More will start to come out now, to lie out in the sun before it gets dark. Even more come out at night, to hunt."

He didn't need to tell her twice.

"Okay, I was gonna get back anyway. But I better not come back empty handed, I was going to bring Ohoyo some berries.

They walked to the Muscadine vines, and Sookie used the bottom part of her dress as a satchel to collect the fruit. Talako helped her…he just didn't seem like an Ethan to her.

"Just watch where you step walking back. I'm going to stay here and bathe." He smiled at her, and his white teeth were even and straight, a nice contrast to his dark skin.

"You know, I try not to stay out of people's minds as much as I can. Figure it's rude, kinda like trespassing in somebody's home."

"I'll try not to read your thoughts, Sookie. But you're very loud."

Aghast to realize that _she_ was a broadcaster, after years of being annoyed by them, she could only wonder that the world was a funny place.

"Thank you, I'd appreciate that. And I appreciate you offerin' to teach me."

Loaded down with berries, she turned away from him and headed towards the trail back to the village.

When she was many yards away, he called out to her, "You're a very graceful swimmer!"

Sookie Stackhouse closed her eyes, embarrassment and something else shooting through her, but continued on her way.

**A/N~ Per merriamwebster online, the first known use of "okay" wasn't until 1839. Please forgive this and all other historical butcherings ;o) **


	8. Chapter 8

"Again."

Frustrated and sweaty, Sookie snapped, "Look, I can't do it, okay?"

"Again."

Talako's steady, neutral tone was really starting to piss her off. Fine, one more try and she was done.

She reached up to hold his face in her hands. Closing her eyes she matched her breathing to his; measured puffs of air in and out of her nose. Hell, she felt like she was doing yoga…

"Concentrate." There was enough of a reprimand in his voice to cause her annoyance to burst into full-blown anger.

Hands dropping, she nearly shouted, "I am _concentrating_, I have been _concentrating._ And I keep tryin' to reach into your mind, again and again, and it's like running into a brick wall!" A bead of sweat dripped down into her right eye, stinging and bringing a curse to her lips.

Voice no longer neutral, Talako responded sharply, "Well then, concentrate on your task. When you touch me stop thinking of that blond bloodsucker. He is not here. He cannot help you."

For a moment Sookie's anger was a palpable thing, catching in her throat and preventing a response. Finally, she spoke in a low, measured voice, "How fucking dare you? How dare you? You gave me your word you'd stay out of my mind."

With a sigh Talako stepped back from her and walked over to a recently fallen tree. Black scorch marks remained from the lighting strike that had felled it. Propping one leg up, he remained turned away from her as he spoke, "The physical contact makes it impossible for me to fully block you out. Things slip through."

Sookie knew that. How many times had she inadvertently read a customer when she bumped into them at the crowded bar? But aside from the anger at the invasion, she felt embarrassed he should pick up such things from her. It was true, when she was in a close proximity to him, he brought to mind Eric. It was there in his above average height, the width of his shoulders, even the shocking blueness of his eyes. It was there in her attraction to him.

What she did not need was another man in her life to moon over. And his implication that she needed saving burned her something fierce.

"Look, I appreciate you helpin' me and all. Tryin' to train me. But I also know it's not out of the sheer goodness of your heart. You say I'm a broadcaster? Well, you know Yakpa is too. Real loud and clear he's wondered exactly how I healed his hands. Honestly I don't know either. But I know he sent you to me."

"Yes. It changes nothing. I would have offered to help you even if Yakpa hadn't approached me."

Walking towards him, needing to see his face, she touched his shoulder and waited until he turned to her. "Why?" She was conscious of the suspicion in her tone and didn't care.

"Because you are my kind. Because you are Fey and there are so few of us here in this realm." Still unable to read him, though she was probing mightily, she knew there was more to it. A lot more. But given her situation, she knew caution was in order.

Swallowing her pride and anger as best she could, she replied, "Okay, fair enough." Glancing upward at the sky through the treetops, she waved in the general direction of the setting sun and said, "Should we head back now? More practice tomorrow and I'll try to be a happy camper."

Seeing his confusion at her expression, she tried again, "I'll be more positive and try not to get as frustrated." It was their third day of training, the third day of hours out alone in the woods and still she'd gleaned nothing from his mind, not a single phrase or image. He'd mixed it up a bit, tested her in other areas. It was with a certain amount of satisfaction that she'd discovered her fiery palm blasts equaled his in power and distance, though he was a better aim. For now.

But she needed to figure out how to get through that thick skull of his.

"I won't be able to train with you tomorrow. I've been summoned to a powwow with a sister tribe. I'll be gone for at least a fortnight."

Annoyance crept back, but also a strange relief, "That's like, two weeks, right?" At his nod, she continued, "Can I ask a favor from you? A pretty big favor?"

Interest sharpened his eyes and he nodded.

"Your hut is empty while you're gone, right? I've, uh, noticed you live alone." Was that a slight smile turning up his lips? "Well, the thing is, living with Yakpa and Ohoyo, don't get me wrong, they're great, but…" Unable to finish, she paused to regroup but he continued for her.

"But if you have to spend one more day in Ohoyo's home you will go completely insane? You're welcome to my hut, Sookie."

A grateful relief flowed through her, more powerful than the slight unease she still felt towards him.

"Thank you! Really. You're saving my life, and maybe hers too."

"I understand. I was wounded in a battle long ago, before the treaty with the Whites. Ohoyo took me into her home and cared for me until I was well. She is a very…determined woman."

"Um, will it matter to the others do you think, that I'm living in your home?" Sookie was fascinated by the cultural differences between the Choctaw of this time and the values she'd been raised with in her own. Many men had multiple wives, yet women held sway over many aspects of daily life and seemed to be equals in society. Children were traced through their mother's lineage, and paternity seemed almost inconsequential.

"Tongues will wag, maybe more than they already are. Do you care?"

Not needing to give it much thought, she replied, "Not really." People would always talk, and she was used to being a source of speculation. It would be worth it to have some space of her own, even if it was temporary.

"Does it take much to build one of the huts?"

"I'll work with Yakpa to secure you your own home when I return, it's more befitting of a medicine woman anyhow."

"I don't know if I want folks to think about me like that. Them knowing about my powers…it makes me a target."

Shaking his head, he said, "Not here it doesn't. Among the Whites you might be hung for witchcraft, I've seen it done. But with the Choctaw you would be a person of respect. And you don't need to share the full extent of your abilities. Be a quiet healer, and that would be enough."

Giving thought to his words, they walked in a companionable silence back to the village.

Of course she didn't intend to stay here, in this place and time. But for now, it was her reality and she needed to deal with it.

A few villagers called out greetings when they returned. Sookie could smell rich gumbos simmering over several fires, along with spits of meat roasting near the open flames.

Arriving in front of Yakpa and Ohoyo's hut, she turned to Talako.

"Thank you. For everything. And safe travels tomorrow."

He leaned into her and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "You are welcome. Sookie, I meant it, what I said the first time I spoke to you. I mean you no harm."

She watched him depart and then reluctantly lifted the hides to enter the hut, grateful that it was her last night under this roof.


	9. Chapter 9

Ohoyo was surprisingly amenable to Sookie moving out, and into Talako's hut. Though Sookie had been expecting anything from disdainful huffiness to full out wrath, she watched with no small amount of disbelief as a little smile graced Ohoyo's lips when Yakpa translated the news. Then breaking into a full grin, the diminutive woman bustled about collecting food goods.

Handing her a bundle that contained dried corn kernels, sassafras leaves, and hickory nuts, Ohoyo embraced Sookie for several long moments before pulling away and saying, "Now you cook at your own fire."

Marveling at the good will radiating from the older woman, Sookie nearly forgot for a moment how desperate she'd been for her own space.

Nearly.

Returning the older woman's embrace, she then pulled back and said a very heartfelt, "Thank you Ohoyo. Truly, from the bottom of my heart." The expression may have been beyond her, but Ohoyo seemed to understand the sentiment behind the words well enough.

Walking out of the hut and across the village to Talako's, Sookie made silly faces at a few giggling children and tried really hard to banish the images Ohoyo had been projecting so strongly. There would be no gurgling blue eyed babies in this village anytime soon, at least none that had anything to do with her. Ohoyo was also hoping that a woman waiting for him in his hut would strengthen Talako's ties to their village. As it was, he divided his time equally between at least three Choctaw villages, acting as a translator and ambassador to the Whites.

Perhaps he would be spending more time here, but only for training.

Arriving at her destination, she was grateful her new abode was at the edge of the little town.

Lifting the straw mat that covered the entranceway, she was very pleased to see the interior was both clean and sparse. It would have been harder living here, surrounded by a lot of his personal things.

The hard packed earthen floor gleaned dimly in the afternoon sunlight pouring in through the skylight above. A single wooden post, centered in the middle of the structure, held up the roof. Eying the fire pit with appreciation even as she shivered in the chilly autumn air, Sookie set about making herself at home.

The first order of business involved getting a small fire going. She felt a simple, honest pride in completing the task efficiently, at least twice as fast as it would have taken her even a week ago.

There was a large, neat pile of wood to the left of the door, and she grudgingly gave credit to Talako for his thoughtfulness. She still felt a vague sense of annoyance leftover from her snit with him yesterday. Really, it wasn't his fault she was struggling with her myriad issues: being displaced in time and plopped down here, the fact that she was still heartsick over two men, her burgeoning and powerful attraction to Talako himself. Maybe that last was just her overwhelmed mind's way of dealing with the first two.

_Sure Sook. Tell yourself that. _

Soon enough flames were crackling and already starting to warm the small space. Sookie poured some fresh water from the bladder she'd brought with her into a cast iron kettle perched on a flat rock at the edge of the fire pit. She'd developed a fondness for Ohoyo's hot tea and had a small satchel filled with the dried leaves and flower buds.

She spread out her bedding, far enough away from the flames for peace of mind, and then went to inspect the only piece of furniture in the room. It was a hickory table, heavy with four slender tree trunks as legs. At first glance it appeared quite rustic but closer inspection revealed the perfectly aligned edges and the smoothly polished surface. And there was a drawer.

It was hard to notice at first, since there was no handle and it was slender, but yes, most definitely a drawer.

Wresting with her conscience, her hand lifting then falling away and finally lifting again, she couldn't deny her curiosity.

She pulled it open slowly, and was at first disappointed, thinking it empty.

But pulling further, there, at the very back, was a handful of bronze coins and a small knife with an intricate knot carved into its wooden handle. From her recent associations with witches she vaguely recognized the design as something Celtic in origin. She reached for it, but a strange reluctance overtook her and she picked up a coin instead. Rubbing at the heavy oxidation with her finger, first slightly and then with more vigor, she was still unable to make out any images imprinted on it. Dropping it with a dull thud back into the drawer, her focus once again returned to the knife.

Pushing through the wall of negative energy she now suspected to be a charm or spell of sorts, she delicately grasped the knife in her right hand and pulled it from the drawer.

Images assailed her, powerful and overwhelming.

_A man, middle-aged and white with ginger colored hair lay sprawled in a bed. He appeared physically healthy, but the lines of his face drooped with despondency. His eyes held stark hopelessness and shards of pain stabbed through Sookie as she felt his grief like a living thing. _

_He broadcast no thoughts; this wasn't telepathy. But his emotion bled into her; a touching of souls. _

_Movement from the corner of her eye…_

_A teenage boy stepped into view, dark skinned but dressed in European clothing. The dagger was in his hand. _

_The boy dropped to his knees by the bed and for a moment buried his face in the blanket. Then lifting his eyes to the prone man, he said, "Father, I can't do this. Don't ask it of me."_

_For a moment Sookie felt weariness and regret flood the older man, but both were subdued and passing in comparison to the crippling sadness. _

"_Son, it is our way. And it is your duty. Please…"_

_The boy's swallow was audible in the silent room. Seeming to fortify himself, he wiped tears from his eyes with one fist before raising the dagger high above the man's chest. With a whispered, "Peace, Father," he plunged the knife down into the man's heart._

_In the moment before death fully claimed him, the man smiled and the oppressive cloud of pain and loss lifted to be replaced by a dazzling joy that flared brightly before dissipating as the spark of life left him. _

_Consumed by gasping sobs, the boy pulled the knife out of his father's chest._

_Up until now Sookie had only had a connection to the father, but like a dam bursting the boy's outrage and grief flooded her followed by his thoughts._

"_The bastards will pay…"_

"_I'll get them…"_

"_Father…mother!"_

Returning to herself, Sookie registered she'd dropped to the earthen floor. Her knees felt bruised and she saw the knife still clasped tightly in her hand. She forcefully unfurled her clenched fist, releasing it. Feeling drained, rising to shaking feet, she crossed the short distance to her makeshift bed.

Stretching out and consciously taking deep, even breaths, she lay for a long time, pondering.


	10. Chapter 10

Sookie awoke to cold darkness.

Sleep had eventually claimed her, offering respite from her troubled thoughts.

But she'd not had the energy to leave her sleeping mat and bank the fire properly.

Regretting that now, she painfully uncurled her legs from the fetal position her body had instinctually assumed in its bid to stay warm. Her muscles ached from the strain of the position, and her right calf in particular was cramping.

Forcing herself to stand and apply pressure to the leg, she walked it out, completing a half circle of the hut, but very deliberately avoiding the section of the floor where the knife lay.

She wasn't up to another vision; not now, maybe not ever. Not like that.

There was the barest, murky light pouring down from the skylight, from the stars and perhaps a small sliver of moon. It allowed her to see enough to get a second fire started, though this time her efforts with the steel and flint Yakpa gave her were clumsy and slow.

After perhaps twenty minutes of fumbling and two false starts, she finally had a steady blaze. Feeding it increasingly larger pieces of wood, she felt satisfied that it wouldn't go out and banked it with a nice sized log.

Task completed, she turned her gaze to the knife. Up until then she'd been purposefully ignoring it, keeping her back to it. Now she watched the way the intricate knot carving on its handle seemed to move in the flickering firelight.

Turning and rummaging through her scant things, she pulled out a smock made of course material traded from the Whites. It was one of the few clothing articles she owned.

Wrapping it around and around her hand, she bent and picked up the knife. Even through the many layers of fabric, she could feel its icy steel biting at her palm.

Shivering despite the fire, she quickly used her free hand to open the slim drawer, then dropped in the knife and slammed it shut.

Immediately she felt better.

Perhaps there was an enchantment upon the table, some type of blocking spell?

She had questions for Talako. Many questions.

Still, she didn't regret asking him to stay here.

In a way, her vision from the knife was her first success at reading him.

And the energy emanating from the dagger wasn't malevolent feeling; it was just very, very powerful.

As long as she was cautious, she would be okay.

Feeling better settled in her mind, she pushed the kettle closer to the flames, deciding on that cup of tea she'd never been able to enjoy earlier.

Later, cup empty and eyes drooping, Sookie settled back onto her sleeping mat and burrowed deeply under her blanket.

Warm and content, she fell into a heavy sleep… only to be awakened some time later by a warm body pressing into hers.

Jesus Christ, Sheppard of Judea!

Outraged at Talako's sheer presumptiveness, she angrily pushed against him only to encounter a….breast.

Shrieking, she jumped up, taking the blanket with her.

There, in _her_ bed, was a naked woman glaring back up at her.

After that first moment of shocked silence between them, both women erupted in angry tirades.

"Look sweetheart, I know I'm a visitor here and all, and I'm not judging, but I just don't roll that way!"

"Kucha! Kucha!" from the intruder, and then a sadder, "Ak akostinincho" before she burst into tears.

Aghast, Sookie looked down at the sobbing woman, sighed, and let her mental barriers drop.

The woman's, uh, girl's, mind was a mess.

Upon closer inspection, even in the dim light, Sookie could see she was perhaps sixteen at best. And she was beautiful with her creamy brown skin, large dark eyes, and very shapely form.

Disgust lacing her tone, Sookie muttered under her breath, "I guess the term statutory rape hasn't been invented yet."

But soon enough the girl's overwhelmed mind provided enough images for Sookie to regret how quickly she'd judged Talako.

Her name was Masheli and thoughts of Talako consumed her. More than one memory firing through her brain showed Talako pushing her away, spurning her advances. Sookie read her hurt and anger, her stinging pride, but they weren't as strong as the girl's yearning. Masheli had seen the firelight in the hut and thought Talako was back in their village. She had thought if she openly came to him he wouldn't refuse her. Apparently teenagers, regardless of century, were still often guided by impulse and desire.

Seeing the girl's smock laid out across the table, Sookie quickly retrieved it and tossed it down to the girl.

"Okay, well. Talako's not here. Go on home now." She gestured to the door with accompanying hand movements.

Dressing, the glare remained on her visitor's face as she walked out of the hut with stiff pride.

Hells bells.

Dawn pushed at the edges of darkness.

No point in trying to get anymore rest.

She washed up with the last of her water, and used her fingers to comb her hair before arranging it in a single braid down her back. Ignoring the tension headache building in her forehead, she exited the hut munching on a piece of jerky.

Purpose filled her.

Her restless thoughts last night had led her to one conclusion: Talako was a willing source of knowledge regarding her Fey heritage. Part of her admitted she'd been going through the motions with him on their training sessions, because she was stuck here and he'd offered. But she'd been holding back, waiting for something or someone to intervene, for the powers that be to jump in and save her, for that portal to open up in front of her and take her back… to what? To Eric or Bill? In the deepest part of her heart she knew she had no future with either of them, not because of what she was but because of what _they _were.

But Talako was like her.

Though she still didn't fully grasp his motives, the truth remained there was an entire part of herself she knew nothing about. Because of her own fear and stubbornness, she'd viewed it as a negative. Her telepathy made her a freak, shaped people's perceptions of her, ultimately impacted the relationships she made. She'd spent so much of her time just wishing to be normal. And her sojourn into the Fey realm hadn't helped. Those few perceived hours she'd spent there only enforced the notion that the Fey blood running through her veins was no good, evil.

And last night's vision had been brutal, true. But it had shown her something. The ginger headed man, a breed of Fey and human like her, was experiencing that sharp, piercing pain because of grief. He'd lost a loved one, a partner, and it had shattered him. But think of what must have been between them when they were together…love that strong couldn't be bad, couldn't come from evil.

She needed to know more about her kind.

She'd been approaching it all wrong. She needed to see herself as a person with tools at her disposal. Complex, complicated tools that didn't come with an instruction guide in her case. But now she was being offered an instructor and it was time to be an apt pupil.

But while she waited for Talako's return, she had an entire village at her disposal to practice her newfound healing abilities on.

**A/N~ If anything is completely goofy in this chapter, I blame it on cold medicine. As always, a big thank you to you that take the time to read and review :o) **


	11. Chapter 11

The child yelped in pain and pulled his arm away from Sookie. His mother chastised him and he grudgingly held it out for Sookie's inspection once again.

The boy was perhaps six or seven and he glared at her with dark eyes filled with equal parts defiance and pain. The rebellious anger wasn't primarily directed at her, but at his mother, who had been lecturing him for the last twenty minutes.

Still, Sookie didn't particularly appreciate being caught in the crossfire, not when she was just trying to help.

Turning to the mother, she pointed to the kettle by her fire pit and said, "Oka." Choctaw for water and one of a few dozen words she'd picked up during her time here. The mother's tirade stopped and she reluctantly picked up the kettle before leaving the hut.

The ruse provided the double benefit of a few moments of blessed, tranquil silence as well as only requiring her to distract one pair of eyes instead of two.

She gently placed a fragrant but wholly unnecessary poultice of herbs on the child's arm even as she used her other hand to gesture to the few wispy clouds visible through the skylight. The child's eyes drew upward and she quickly shot healing light into his arm.

His eyes abruptly dropped, and he stared at his newly healed arm with first shock and then amazement. Then his gaze lifted to hers and an impish grin lit his features. _Oh Lord, give strength and comfort to all mommas of little boys._ The little snot was probably going to go right out and climb another tree.

Resisting the sudden urge to reprimand him herself, she couldn't help but return his smile. When he made to get up, she stopped him and gestured for him to keep the poultice on his arm. Expecting some amount of willful resistance, she was a little surprised when he just nodded and amiably waited for his mother's return.

Wondering at the mercurial nature of children, Sookie busied herself with preparing tea for three. She had to do something with the water when the woman returned.

So far she'd been active in her role as "medicine woman" for nearly two weeks now. In that time she'd healed a few deep cuts, one fairly bad burn, and now this fractured arm. She hid her abilities behind herbal remedies, and it granted her some peace of mind even as she knew her miraculous results had people speculating. She'd gone to Yakpa seven days ago and made her desire to help known. She'd figured it would be a slow process, that the villagers wouldn't trust her enough to go to her for care right away. But their open-mindedness and easy acceptance both surprised and humbled her.

She found the ability to heal came intuitively; the softly glowing light would shoot from her fingertips at command, all she had to do was envision the person before her healthy.

It was completely different from her trainings with Talako when erratic fire balls would shoot from her palms, often missing their target. After much thought, she decided that it was simply right that something used for good should come more easily than something intended to destroy and maim.

When the woman returned, kettle full, Sookie watched the heavy worry lines on her face ease as she took in her son's much improved state. From the woman's projections Sookie knew he was her only living child, and that she had lost an infant before this boy to a fever.

The woman was profuse in her thanks, saying "Yakoke, yakoke," several times, which Sookie knew meant 'thank you,' along with many other words that she did not know.

A short while later her two visitors departed and Sookie was left alone, staring into her fire.

Each time she healed a villager, there would be a payment placed just outside her door by the next morning. So far she had received such items as a freshly killed rabbit and a pouch of shells. Her initial reaction had been to decline the gifts; she shouldn't get paid for just trying to help, especially when so many here had already assisted her. But a conversation with Yakpa, as well as a little self-reflection, changed her mind. Just like in any time, people could contribute to the overall good of a community even as they made a living from their efforts. She had traded the shells to a middle aged second wife for a cast-iron pot. She still felt like she got the better deal there, despite the woman's gloating features upon the completion of their trade.

A familiar voice called out through the woven mats covering the doorway, "Haaallooo Sookie!"

Not completely surprised since the village had been expecting him, and steadfastly ignoring the way her heart strummed faster, she replied, "I'm here Talako, and completely clothed. Promise. Come on in."

"Well, that's a rather disappointing thing for any man to hear, lass. Especially after a long and lonely journey." The mats dropped behind him and he gave her a warm smile before going to sit by the fire.

Her eyes narrowed as she studied him. He'd never exchanged flirtatious banter with her before. But she decided to disregard it for now as she took in his wet clothing and the weariness in his eyes.

"What happened to you?"

"Aye, Sookie, it's a long story that involves an angry chief and a cage of chickens. Are you sure you're up for it?"

Feeling her lips twitch, she settled herself across from him and said, "Lay it on me."

She watched his white teeth appear as he returned her grin. "Ah, I see what you did there. Chickens, laying…" His deep chuckle warmed her more than the flames.

He continued, "Well, first, before you hear this story, there's something you may not know about chickens. They're actually very good swimmers…"

As she listened to his story she ladled gumbo from her new cast iron pot into a bowl. It was her second attempt at preparing the dish, the first had been a dismal failure and she hadn't yet tasted this batch.

She handed him the steaming bowl, a wide grin splitting her face, and waited. Partly she hoped it was good. Some ornery part of her hoped it wasn't.

"…so it will be a while before I return to that village."

Laughing, she replied, "I imagine not. And I'm sure glad I fell in with this lot here. Guess I got real lucky."

"It was more than luck."

The sudden serious tone in his voice surprised her, and she held his eyes for a few moments before saying, "What do you mean?"

"You're supposed to be here Sookie. Yakpa was meant to bring you here."

"So what? Is divination a Fay ability now too?"

"For some, yes. But not me. I just know, I can feel it."

"Do you know anything more about the vortex thingy that brought me here?" She'd described it to him the day of their first training; he'd been largely silent then, just listening. Despite the fact that she hadn't known him long, she'd figured it couldn't hurt, talking to him about it. Well, she didn't know him much better now. But her vision with the dagger made her feel closer to him.

"No. I asked the shaman at the village I just visited. He didn't know anymore than me. My da told me stories of pure Fay, that they have doorways to other worlds. "

Nodding, Sookie knew this much herself.

"Well, go on, try it."

Eying the stew, he said, "I've never been known as a cowardly man…"

"Hey! You said you'd stay outta my head!"

"Lass, even if you weren't shoutin' at me with your thoughts, you haven't fixed yourself a bowl yet and you looked a little too satisfied with yourself when you handed me mine."

Grinning, she prepared her own bowl. It smelled divine. The whole not burning it thing seemed to have made a big difference.

A small moan from him distracted her. "Oh, very good Sookie. 'Bout as good as my mama made."

She smiled, "Thanks."

They ate in companionable silence; she could tell he was tuckered out. She worried for a few moments regarding their sleeping arrangements, but decided to stop borrowing trouble. They were both adults. He'd lay out his bedding on the opposite side of the fire, and it would work out just fine.


	12. Chapter 12

Sookie lay awake listening to Talako's deep breaths as he slept punctuated by the occasional crackle from the banked fire. The glowing embers cast shadows across the hut, and she stared at the drawer containing the dagger.

She hadn't brought up her vision with him, though it had weighed heavy on her mind. Likely he'd picked up much of it from her thoughts. Or maybe not. He had promised to stay out of her thoughts and for some reason she was inclined to believe he was giving it a valiant effort.

He confused her.

Tonight he had been a tired man, weary, but lighthearted. He'd been filled with playful banter and slightly flirtatious throughout the evening. It conflicted with the disciplined and slightly angry instructor he'd been only a few weeks before. And then she thought back to her vision from the dagger, to that tormented youth forced to sacrifice his own father.

Was sacrifice even the right word?

There had been something ritualistic about it, but it hadn't felt like an offering. Remembering Talako's father's torment, perhaps it was best defined as a mercy killing.

"It is known as adbertos," his voice cut through the dimness. She'd been too lost in her thoughts to notice a change in his breathing.

"It sounds Spanish," she managed to say, calm, despite the startle he'd given her.

"Perhaps. But it's Gallic. It comes from the Celtic Fay, my father's people."

"What does it mean?"

He was silent for a moment and Sookie could hear his bedding rustle as he shifted positions. "There is not an English equivalent. Maybe the word 'balance' best describes it. Life is about balance, about good and evil and happiness and agony. We must experience equal shares of each, at least in this life. My father, his soul had been swallowed by agony…he needed to be freed from it."

"So that balance could be restored?"

"Yes."

Sookie gave it several moments of thought, but her mind couldn't make it make sense.

"So some Fay religious thing required you to kill your own father so that he wouldn't suffer anymore? I don't get it. I don't get how making a boy go through that, do that to his own father makes any sort of balance happen. And I know he was grieving for your mother. But that hurt for a loved one, well, I know it doesn't go away, but it gets bearable, eventually..."

"I know it doesn't make sense for you, Sookie. But my father's loss, it wasn't just grief. It was something deeper. He was hand fasted to my mother, do you know what that means?"

Sookie nodded before she remembered he probably couldn't see her. She was a regular at the public library and devoured several historical romances a month.

"Yeah. It's when a couple makes a pledge, maybe for a year. Sort of a try-out before getting married."

"That's one version of it, done by humans. For the Fay, or those with Fay blood, a couple is hand fasted, or lanamnas, only if they have the deepest of connections."

"You mean, like, soul mates?" Sookie resisted the urge to snort but knew her voice was heavy with skepticism.

"Yes."

"Talako, I just don't believe in that. I've been in too many people's minds. Husbands sitting right across from their wives eating dinner but thinking about some girl down at the office or whatever. And women are just as bad. People just aren't wired that way. Folks can choose to settle down with one partner and make a go of it, but that doesn't make it soul mates."

"What about you and your Eric?"

A whirl of emotion moved through her, both anger and a stinging pain. "Not that it's any of your business, but I guess fair's fair since I saw what I did and we're past worrying about what's personal, but I can say I love Eric without saying he's my soul mate. I'm one of thousands of women he's slept with through the ages and they'll be a thousand more after me." Her words hurt her even as she said them. "I'll be dust in the earth, but there he'll be…a…a perfect creature in the starlight. And because I love him I want it that way. It's agony for me to think of him meeting the sun or getting staked..."

Sookie found she was trembling from her outburst; she'd given words to things she'd barely allowed herself to think about.

"Why not join him in the starlight? Become like him?" Because Talako asked it honestly, without malice or sarcasm, Sookie was able to respond in kind.

"It's not what I am. It's not in me to be that. I have to have sunlight. I lay out in it and soak it up, and I swear it fills me up in some way, it 'revitalizes' me I guess is the word." After a moment of getting her thoughts together, she continued, "Also I don't want to stay at one age forever; the change is natural, supposed to happen. And I…I want children someday. I've always known, one day, I would be a mom. I'm not saying all women have to be mothers, but I knew_ I_ would be, that I needed to be."

She heard more rustling and then he was lying beside her. It wasn't sexual, she knew, so she allowed it. He reached through the darkness and clasped her hand. She felt…comforted.

"Sookie, you are a sky fairy. You actually do draw power from the sun. You are human enough that you could be converted to a vampire, but you would lose a part of what you are."

Thinking back on her experiences with first Bill and then Eric, it made sense that two beings of darkness would be drawn to a creature, literally, of light.

"What type of Fay are you?"

"I am of the Sky Fay too."

Turning more to her side, she said, "Tell me about your mother and father."

"They were lanamnas, as I said. True soul mates. He came here to Louisiana from Scotland. It was just supposed to be for a short while. He was a trapper, trading furs and trying to get together enough money to become a landowner when he returned home. But he saw my mother and felt her pull immediately."

"Did she feel some sort of magic as well?"

Despite the near darkness, the banked coals allowed her to see a flash of teeth as he smiled.

"No. The gods or the higher powers have a very interesting sense of humor. Upon meeting, the man knows immediately. A woman won't feel the power until the hand fasting ceremony. He has to woo her and convince her to show him favor."

"Well, that sucks. What about couples that are the same sex?"

Perhaps it was a risky question, considering the time she was stuck in, but Talako's heritage was largely Native American too, and she knew many of the tribes embraced wider, more accepting views of such things. She still couldn't swallow the concept of 'soul mates' but she also firmly believed people couldn't help who they loved.

"My da told me a tale of such. Still, only one partner recognized the lanamnas and he had to convince his partner to go through the ceremony."

Nodding, she asked, "So, your father was obviously successful in courting your mother. And they stayed here, in Louisiana?"

"Yes. We lived here, in this village, with my mother's people for most of my childhood. I didn't have any siblings. The Fay, even with human blood, are not known for their fertility. When I was twelve my mother got it into her head that I should know the way of the whites, too. More than just what my father was teaching me. She thought I should live among them as well, to truly understand them. We moved to New Orleans and they made me attend a boarding school where boys with my skin color were taught to be more white." There was a bite to his words, and Sookie was overwhelmed by what he must have felt then, an adolescent boy torn not just by two worlds, but three: the Choctaw, white, and Fay.

Squeezing his hand, she remained silent, allowing him to continue at his pace.

"We settled into a life there. I managed to excel at my lessons and become comfortable in the restrictive clothes. For a few weeks each summer we would return to my mother's people, so that world wasn't left behind. We were happy. Then my ma got attacked. She was a woman of color out shopping, her purse heavy with coin. Two men watched her and resented her fortune, didn't like the way she wore fine muslin over her dark skin. They took her to an alley, and…I saw it all later, in their thoughts, when I found them."

She heard him swallow and she managed a thick, "I'm sorry." There are never any words that offer true solace; Sookie knew it firsthand having lost her Gran to a violent act. But this, this was beyond horrific.

"She made it home. But she was hurt, very badly hurt. She died that same night. My da's grief…Sookie, I can't describe it. A piece of himself had been torn away. My mother loved plants, she had a lovely garden. It all died, withered like a heavy frost had settled. It was from my father's pain. That's what I meant by balance. Fay cannot go on without their soul mates. It is too much agony, too much unbalance. It affects the physical world, and the affects continue to get larger, like a stone dropping in a pond. My da could not go on, and it was my duty to care for him, to do what he needed, to do what had always been done with a sole survivor of lanamnas."

Sookie brought his hand to her lips and kissed it. After a moment he moved it to cup her cheek and she knew he felt her tears. There was more to be said, but not tonight. She turned to her side, pulling him with her so that her back met his front. The two curled into each other's warmth, and after a time their slumbering breaths were the only sounds besides the soft pops from the fire.


	13. Chapter 13

Sookie awoke, cocooned in warmth. Talako's right arm hugged her middle, locking her in a tight embrace even as he slumbered on.

She felt no panic, no need to quickly free herself.

Instead she lay still for several long moments. She enjoyed their shared heat and the lingering feeling of comfort from the night before. She watched his arm, slung across her body, subtly rise and fall with each breath she took. His forearm was lean and muscled and she lifted a hand, two fingers tracing a line back and forth across his smooth skin. Instinct pushed at her, and closing her eyes, she surrendered to it.

She envisioned a pale yellow light emanating around her, from within her. In her mind, she saw Talako projecting a similar light from the center of his being. Her light grew with delicate strength, and began to envelop and join with his until only one aura surrounded them both.

Summertime.

The sun's rays.

Sunlight was pouring through a forest's canopy, a thousand pinpricks of light reflected a thousand different ways as the beams hit the glossy, waxy leaves. A breeze kicked up, and the light shimmered and danced, nature's kaleidoscope.

She was in his mind.

In his dream.

An outside observer looking in.

A couple lay entwined on a blanket on the forest floor, kissing. The man was above the woman, bracing his weight on either arm so as not to crush her. Her arms were wrapped around his torso, fingers splayed, flexing with a building urgency that caused his shirt to bunch and lift, revealing a smooth, muscled back. The man's long black hair shimmered almost blue in the sun's rays as he moved his head, exploring his partner's mouth and then pulling back to lick along her bottom lip, then trailing his tongue down her neck and up to the point just behind her earlobe.

It seemed to tickle the woman, and she turned her head away, giggling. Sookie saw her full face.

Sookie was looking at herself. Watching Talako's long fingers trail down her body to the base of her smock. Then he was lifting it and the Sookie splayed out on the blanket smiled, and helped him pull it over her head before carelessly tossing it to the ground.

Observer Sookie felt a shift of awareness, and then she was the woman naked beneath Talako. He stilled, and she wondered if he had felt a change, felt her truly join him here.

Then his warm, strong hands cupped her face. For a delicious moment they just stared into each other's eyes. She saw thin rings of deep blue around large, dark pupils. His gaze was black, obsidian. Rock formed by fire. And she was burning, burning. Straining, she lifted her lips to his, and this time she could not only see but feel their supple texture. They were full, beautiful lips, and she sucked the bottom one between her own, savoring his taste.

A groan wrenched from him, somehow both helpless and masculine. The sound stabbed through her, causing an aching heat to build low in her belly.

Restless, needing more, needing to be closer, she lifted her body and pushed at him. Though he was larger and stronger, he conceded, now the one lying on his back.

Her thighs straddled his hardness and she found herself resenting those tight pants she had always appreciated before. They were in the way.

His arms gripped her hips and together they ground against each other. A frustrated groan left her lips; the friction was so very good, but not enough.

At her groan, his hands moved from her sides to her front, settling low on her belly. He spent a moment caressing the silk of her skin there, and then splayed his fingers wide. One thumb rested teasingly on her curls before both hands moved up along her belly. She was trembling now slightly, and goose bumps covered her arms and legs despite the warm afternoon sun. She ached…

Feeling her shaking, he gently drew her down to his chest. He murmured comforting sounds, Choctaw words she did not understand but his soothing message was clear as he massaged her back. Feeling centered, she lifted enough to meet his gaze and smile. He returned it, crinkles forming at the corner of each eye.

Then she felt another shifting, and a sense of vertigo gripped her. The sunlight faded, becoming twilight and then night.

She opened her eyes, registering that she was in Talako's hut and that it was still dark. Talako's arm still encircled her, but his breathing had changed. He was awake. Trying and failing, she couldn't read his thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she sat up and turned to face him. The fire offered the barest illumination, but she could see his eyes studying her. Not sure if an apology was in order or not, she decided to start with her most pressing question.

"Did you know it was me? Really me and not just a dream?"

"Yes."

Swallowing thickly, she continued, "Did you dream about me because I jumped into your thoughts, or…"

"You already know Sookie. I was dreaming about you even before you entered my mind."

Nodding, she managed a very articulate, "Okay." It was the best she could do; her brain seemed to have hung up a "Be back in five minutes" sign. That, and frustrated arousal still ran through her.

Trying to get it together, she said, "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to intrude like that, especially when I asked you to stay out of my head. I just woke up, feeling very peaceful, and I had this feeling, sort of this knowing…"

"Sookie, you have nothing to apologize for. Once I sensed your presence we were equal participants. And it was just a dream. No harm done." His hand sought hers in the darkness, and she gripped it before releasing it. "The 'knowing' you're talking about is an innate sense known to those with Fay blood. It strengthens as we are around other Fay."

She appreciated his support and lack of anger, but she struggled against feelings of hurt at how easily he dismissed the experience.

"Okay, good. So that means I'll get better the more we train. And you'll get something out of it too?" And then, before she could stop herself, "So what, is a dream like drinking? Inhibitions are lowered so stuff happens, but it's not real anyway, so nothing means anything?"

"Sookie I have never shared a dream with another Fay before, this is a first for me as well." Then, after a short pause, "And I promise you, it was not meaningless, at least not for me."

Feeling better, she said an awkward, "Thank you. Not for me either."

Talako rose to his feet and crossed to the doorway. Pushing aside the woven reed mat, they could both see the beginnings of dawn on the horizon.

"How about an early training session today?"

Her response was an emphatic, "Absolutely." She had a lot of pent up energy to work with.


	14. Chapter 14

Talako surprised her by not taking her away from the village for training.

Stamping down her initial protests, he assured her that her abilities would remain hidden. Mostly hidden. "Sookie, they already believe you hold mystical powers. The healings you did while I was away ensured that." She didn't detect any censor in his voice, and perhaps, just under the neutral tone of those words was even the barest trace of pride.

"Okay, yeah, maybe they think that a little. But I also made a show of using herbs and plants."

Now those gorgeous lips turned up in a mocking grin, "A poor show." Fighting words, but his tone was playful, "My people are not idiots, Sookie. At one point you used willow bark to 'heal' a very deep cut. A bit of bark isn't going to seal up a deep cut several inches long that's gushing blood."

"It would help with the pain and perhaps bring down a fever though!"

His eyebrows raised as he fixed her with an incredulous stare, that damn mocking smile still on his face.

"How do you know about that anyways?"

"Aside from the dozen people that told me about it last night when I returned, I also saw it in the little girl's mind. She still has moments of awe when she looks down and sees smooth skin."

Made sense. Sookie hadn't picked up any such thoughts from her, but she hadn't really been around her since the incident either. As to the powers of willow bark, Sookie was a product of the twenty-first century. She knew aspirin was somehow derived from it, but that was about the extent of her knowledge of natural remedies. Well, that, and a paste made from baking soda and water could go a long way to soothing a yellowjacket sting. Not that it mattered here as there weren't boxes of baking soda lying around.

"Alright, I know folks around here are open to, um, mystical things. I just don't want it to be too obvious, okay?"

"Our practice will be very unobtrusive." Great. Says him. Though there was a warm feeling of comfort here in this village, she still felt eyes upon her during the day. Having grown up in a small town, she knew it was just par for the course for any newcomer entering a tight knit community. Throw in her pale skin and displays of magic, and it would be downright strange if they_ didn't_ watch her.

"Okey dokey, what amazing feats of Fay magic shall we perform today?"

"We're going to distribute goods," Talako stated mildly, gesturing to several bulging knapsacks on the floor.

"Um. Okay. What are we really going to do today?"

Smiling again, he replied, "We really are going to hand out goods, some items I received in trade while I was away. Also, you are going to conduct scans on people. You're going to practice identifying those with even minute traces of Fay blood."

Completely fascinated now, she stared at him. "There are others besides you?"

"Yes. I told you my father was Fay. But my mother also carried Fay blood, though it was mostly dormant. Perhaps the only time it manifested was when my father first saw my mother and hand fasted with her. Fay can only connect like that to another Fay. This village, they are my mother's people. Somewhere back in time a Fay fathered at least one child here. That blood is diluted now, but still detectable among a few."

Sookie was listening to everything he said, but a small bit of her awareness had split away and was stuck on part of Talako's words. _Fay can only connect like that to other Fay_. Something inside of her felt a gentle sadness. Gran had betrayed her husband, Sookie's grandfather, because of her love for a Fay man. Finton had appeared out of the woods, beautiful and ethereal. Gran hadn't been able to resist, and they'd created two children. Just lust then and no magical connection?

"Sookie, it is not our place to judge those who have gone before."

"Damnit, stay out of my mind!" She was angry that he had invaded her privacy again, even if her mind was loud and leaky. But she was even angrier that his words held a certain wisdom. Gran was gone now. Finton too. Who was she to look back over the decades and judge? Then mental dizziness hit as she realized that here, in this time, Gran hadn't even been born yet.

It was too much to take in, if she allowed herself to give it any thought.

The day was just beginning. She was wasting time and energy. Time to get a move on.

"Look, Talako. I'm sorry about yelling. But I really do need to know that my mental space is my own, otherwise I'm going to go crazy."

Nodding at her words, he handed her a cup of Ohoyo's herbal tea. "I apologize too, Sookie. I truly am trying to stay out. But you can be very loud, lass, especially when something is…," he seemed to struggle for the right word for a moment before continuing, "is meaningful to you."

Giving him a tentative smile, she said, "Okay then, guess we're even-steven. Tell me how this Fay scan thing works." She didn't have to be a mind reader to know the expression 'even-steven' was new to him, but he seemed to understand her sentiment well enough.

"You shared that you've been to a Fay realm? Around pure Fay?"

"Yes." And it wasn't an experience she cared to repeat anytime soon.

"I've never been out of this realm, but I have encountered pure bloods. They're unmistakable, as I'm sure you know." Nodding, she waited for him to continue, "Those like us, those with different amounts of mixed blood, we feel a little different. When you first met me, what do you remember?"

Since her first thought involved indecently tight pants, she sure hoped he was minding his manners and not reading her mind. "I couldn't read your thoughts. But I didn't notice right away because of everything going on." And she couldn't resist, "Also I try not to intrude unless it's necessary."

"Okay, so the second time we met, by the river…" was it her imagination or were his pupils getting all big and darkly delicious again? "you knew then you couldn't read me."

"Pretty much. And not much has changed."

"Did you notice anything else? Feel anything else?"

His tone was serious enough that she paused, giving it serious thought before responding, "No, nothin'. I guess last night, when I woke up while you were still sleeping, I felt something. Some sort of hocus pocus."

His eyes lit up and said enthusiastically, "Yes! That was Fay instinct. It works best when you are relaxed and not mentally blocking its energies."

Giving a sigh, she managed, "So today I'm going to go sit out in the center of the village, help you give stuff out to folks, try my best to relax and not notice the way people stare at me like I've got two heads, and 'read' them to try to figure out who has Fay blood."

He borrowed her words, those baby blues of his twinkling with amusement, "Pretty much."

Smartass.

**A/N~ A big thanks to artzannie25 for her encouragement and enthusiasm. You rock! **


	15. Chapter 15

Talako was a people person.

Sookie was bundling another batch of food goods that contained, among other items, salt pork and spices. But through her peripheral vision she was watching Talako make another child giggle even as he charmed the little one's mother. The little one's young and beautiful mother.

She told herself those weren't shards of jealousy stabbing through her. She had no place feeling such things; she had no claim to him.

Did she want one?

_Stop it Sook. Focus._

Turning, she handed the cloth wrapped bundle to the younger woman and received a shy smile of gratitude and a softly spoken, "Wa do."

Sookie returned the smile and nodded her acceptance. In the time she'd been here she hadn't heard an equivalent for "You're welcome." She'd witnessed people giving graciously and accepting graciously. It seemed part of village life, mutual survival. Well, not all was idyllic. Last week she'd seen two women literally come to blows over possession of a cast iron frying pan. Turns out there was decade old bad blood between them, regarding, of course, a man. A man that lived a village over now with two new wives.

They'd been at this for most of the day, and the early morning crowd had dissipated along with their stack of supplies as the hours passed. The mother and child were the last. Sookie had set aside a bundle for Yakpa and Ohoyo. The older couple had been noticeably absent for most of the day; their first grandchild had arrived with the dawn.

They were alone, sitting by their…no…Talako's hut. Bright noonday sun shone down on them; neither moved to the nearby shade.

"How many?"

She knew what he was asking, and with no small amount of satisfaction promptly stated, "Five."

He laughed. "I admire you're confidence. And it's not completely unfounded; you're close. Not counting myself, there are four here with detectable Fay blood."

Sookie was already shaking her head and ticking off fingers, "The old, old man. The one with no teeth. The twin boys, the one year olds. The young woman, the last one just now. And Masheli." Masheli was the teenage girl Sookie had first encountered in the middle of the night in Talako's hut. The one that fancied herself in love with Talako.

"Masheli?" There was incredulity in his voice, but also the tiniest thread of self-doubt.

"Yeah, Masheli. It's probably why she's so drawn to you; she feels the Fay connection." Well, that and the man was gorgeous. But Sookie had been around attractive men, been hit on by more than a few during her years at Merlottes, especially by the passers-through that didn't know her history as 'that freaky Stackhouse girl.' Talako's appeal came from more than just his good looks. Maybe it was just his Fay blood, and like young Masheli, she also fell victim to its pull.

Her brother Jason had the same magnetism. Some part of her had always thought he was lucky, to have avoided the burden of telepathy. He'd had no other powers manifest either…except his strong sex appeal. Women, and more than one man, had made a fool of themselves over him. But his relationships were shallow, based on the physical, and fleeting. She wanted better for him. Wanted him to find a true partner. He could be a self-centered jackass, sure, but he was family and she loved him.

"Do you really still consider it a burden?"

Sighing, she shot him a dark look for yet another mental intrusion. But the sunlight felt good on her face and a calm peace filled her despite her best effort to work up a good mad-on.

"No. But I did for a long time. In regards to family, to my little hometown, I think my abilities will always feel like a curse."

"You're no longer a child. You're a woman grown. You're here, now. In a place where people recognize your power and respect you for it." His voice held no reprimand, nor did it contain encouragement. He stated facts and left their interpretation to her.

"True. But I don't belong here; I'm not meant to be here. It's unnatural."

"Yet you are here."

Yup. Truth. She thought back, once again, to the Gran-creature. She couldn't be sure, but she felt it had summoned the vortex. Talako had already shared he didn't know what the creature was. But if there was one, why not more? The next time she was sucked into some wormhole she might not get as lucky. Might not find kind faces, or perhaps, any faces at all. She shuddered at the possibilities

Sookie looked over to him, "Can we do some training this afternoon?" If and when she encountered another shape shifting, time turning creature with dubious intent, she intended to be prepared.

Talako nodded and immediately rose. He went inside and seemed to be packing a variety of items. Sookie could hear him moving around, but remained outside waiting for him. It wasn't like there were many things inside the hut to begin with; the task didn't require two hands.

She was finding this simple living…peaceful.

There was a rightness to only owning what was needed. Her home was filled with knickknacks and odds and ends Gran had collected through the years. They made dusting hell. Not to mention the piles of junk previous Stackhouses had amassed, stored in the attic and in various closets. She kept it all because it had always been kept. After enjoying the liberation of clutter free living these last weeks, she thought that would likely change if and when she returned home.

Talako emerged from the hut with a satchel slung over his back. He handed her an empty canteen. They filled their containers at the river before following it upstream.

They traveled deeper into the forest than they'd yet been for training. Born and bred in Louisiana, she and her brother had spent countless hours playing outside as kids. The protruding, gnarled roots of the cypress trees just above the waterline were familiar and felt like home. But the air was different here, in this time. More crisp. Perhaps it was a simple lack of pollution. Maybe it was just her own whimsical imagination.

They arrived at a clearing, the village far behind them.

A sense of déjà vu flooded her senses.

At the far end of the clearing where the woods began again...she'd been there before. It was the place from Talako's dream.

They'd walked in silence most of their journey. It had been strangely comforting. Now she stopped, and he followed suit. He turned and looked into her eyes. There was a challenge in his gaze mixed with the smallest amount of uncertainty.

He wasn't completely sure this was a good idea.

For some reason that made her feel better.

"You slipped into my dream. That was a mind contact. I thought coming here might make it easier for you to do it again."

"It was a good idea." She couldn't suppress a smile at his slight start of surprise. _Finally minding your manners, Talako, and sticking to your own thoughts? _"Okay. So, what do you have in mind for today's training?"

He actually seemed nervous as he pulled a blanket from the satchel. The same blanket from the dream, and walked towards the alcove canopied in lush greenery.


	16. Chapter 16

Talako spread the blanket out, and Sookie helped, nudging a few larger rocks out of the way before pulling the corners straight and flopping down.

A childlike exuberance filled her.

There was a soothing, joyous presence to this place. Her witch friend Amelia would probably say something about ley-lines and ancient power.

Maybe all that stuff was true and maybe it wasn't. Though with everything Sookie had witnessed, heck, been a part of the last couple of years, she was inclined to believe the former.

But sometimes gifts are just meant to be accepted, and Nature was bestowing something beautiful on them.

"Do you feel that too?"

Talako nodded and joined her, sitting gracefully in one fluid movement. Several feet separated them, and Sookie took it as an unspoken message of his gentlemanly intentions.

"I've always felt drawn to this place. My father and I were out hunting, years ago, and I felt a call to come here. Confused my da'. The deer went one way, I went the other." A crooked little grin accompanied his words. It was a smile two parts loving remembrance and one part pain. She knew a similar look graced her own features when she spoke of Gran.

She scooted closer to him and reached for his hand.

For many moments they sat there, quiet in the semi-stillness of the woods. In the distance a warbler called out its song. Sookie didn't need to see the bird with its yellow and black markings to recognize the _chiddle chiddle chick-a cheet_. A sense of the surreal washed over her, breaking her peace. How could a place be so familiar, be so much home, and yet still be utterly foreign?

"Kay, Talako. Let's try this." She reached for his other hand with hers, so that both of hers now clasped his. They created a circuit of energy. Sookie closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.

_Relax Sook._

_Deep breath in…one, two, three, four…_

_Exhale longer…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight…_

Talako matched his breath to hers. His deep exhales stirred the fine hairs around her face and his fingers were warm and strong in hers.

She imagined some of the particles she took into herself with her strong inhales had just been in his lungs, just given him life.

Same air.

Same Fay blood.

She was meant to mind speak with him.

It was the way of their kind.

She intuitively knew that, here in this place. The fact that her telepathy worked with human beings was just an extension of its primary purpose: Fay to Fay communication.

She stopped thinking about it so hard and just let it come.

And it did.

"…_don't want to frighten her. Just want to help. Know what it's like to be different. Can she feel it, can she feel it at all? Christ, wanna touch her so bad…"_

Sookie pulled back and slammed up barriers she'd only just discovered. Opening them the next time would be easier now.

Their measured breaths had morphed into gasps and when she opened her eyes she found his already burning into hers.

She was the one that closed the distance between them, crawling to him and then lifting up on her knees so he had to tilt his head to keep her eyes. The intensity she read in his gaze caused her stomach to clench around an emptiness she longed for him to fill. Heat pooled low, and the aching neediness she'd felt in his dream returned to her.

Only stronger…

and deeper…

because this was real.

She released his fingers and trailed her hands up his chest and then grasped onto his shoulders, pressing her body to Talako's. Her breasts were at his mouth and he cupped them in his palms as his lips nuzzled first one sensitive tip and then the other through the coarse material of her shift. Aching sensation flooded her; the abrasiveness hovered somewhere between pain and pleasure. Then, with his deep blue eyes rolled up to hers, still keeping her gaze, he gently bit down on one nipple.

A broken shriek escaped her. Sookie sank down, straddling his sitting body and frantically captured his lips with hers.

All gentleness was gone now.

Her tongue dueled with his as she ground against his hardness; her fingers entwined in the heavy silk of his hair, pulling him closer.

Talako's palms slipped from her breasts and trailed down the curves of her body, settling high on her thighs where the shift bunched at her spread legs. Unseeing, his eyes finally closed to passion, he gathered the material in his fists and lifted the garment from her.

The kiss broke as he pulled the garment up over her head and tossed it away, then his lips returned to hers. His hands traveled down her body again, but this time his searching fingers trailed along bare skin leaving goose bumps in their wake. He seemed to have regained some semblance of control while Sookie was still frantic.

Light trembles racked her body; her breaths were quick little pants.

With a final sweep of his tongue against hers, Talako pulled back just enough to speak. His lips touched hers as he enunciated each word. Sookie had to force herself to really listen, to think beyond the sensations.

"…need to tell you. Sookie, lass, if we do this, there's no…" she began nuzzling his neck as he spoke and his words broke off with a groan. Now her hands moved down his body, down to those deliciously tight pants that had been a source of torment to her for weeks.

Together they worked him free of his leggings and moccasins; his shirt had already been abandoned earlier in the day as they hiked.

She settled back over him, the hot satin of her skin gliding along the coarse leg hair of his upper thighs. Their mouths met again, this time a shallow kiss. She sucked on the fullness of his bottom lip eliciting the smallest breathy moan from him.

The needy sound caused another surge of desire within her, and she raised one hand to his chest and pushed.

He obliged and lay back, watching her as he drew deep breaths into his lungs. She moved to fully straddle him, and then reached beneath her to grasp his hardness in her fist. She pumped once, twice, and then dropped her hand to trail gentle fingers up and down his heavy sac.

A louder moan escaped him and it was too much for her.

She reached for him again, aligning their bodies.

Holding his gaze, she slid her body down onto his.

**A/N~ This chapter took me a ridiculously long time to write. Probably because I was blushing the whole time. Next chapter is gonna pick up where this little interlude left off, promise. But I decided I wanted one chapter that focused on the physical elements of their joining and another that focuses on, well, other stuff. **


	17. Chapter 17

His hardness filled her, stretched her.

Fully joined to him, she paused for the barest of seconds to just feel him there, to look down on him spread below her, looking back at her through slitted eyes.

But the need between them was too strong, soon she had to move.

Straining, light trembles racking her body, she pushed up with her knees until she felt just his tip still within her, and then a smooth glide as she dropped down again. And again. And again.

An innate rhythm guided her movements, and her hips began arching forward as she lifted from him each time, causing him to bump a place inside of her that started a tingling low in her belly and radiated out to her toes and fingers.

His warm hands helped guide her hips; she could feel each finger pressed firmly into her flesh. Then his hands lifted and cupped her swaying breasts as she moved over him. Her already hardened nipples became impossibly sensitive and a cry escaped her throat. In frustration, she pulled Talako's right hand up to her mouth. She sucked in one long finger and then two, needing to take as much of him into herself as she could. She ran her tongue up and down the length of the digits, sucking at them as she continued riding him.

Broken moans fell from his lips now and she began moving faster, her own needy sounds joining his.

His left hand remained at her chest, alternating between tugging and pulling at her nipple and cupping the full breast.

The once gentle tingles radiating out from her center were building into something more. She could feel him swelling inside her, somehow harder. Her movements were no longer rhythmic, but frantic and jerky. The sounds slipping through her lips were very nearly sobs.

Though the haze of her passion, through the deep want surging through her, she was aware Talako had dropped his hands back to her hips. Confusion seized her as she realized he was holding her to slow her movements.

"Sookie, my love. I'm goin' ta, ta…I need ya ta slow for me lass." Talako gasped out the words, his brogue the heaviest she'd heard from him. Intense frustration seized her as she tried to do what he asked, as she fought against her own body that demanded she continue urgently sinking down on him.

His hands moved from her hips to just above the place their bodies joined. He spread her folds with his thumbs, and with fingers still moist from her mouth, began massaging the bundle of nerves he found there.

Something broke inside of her.

Talako lifted up until he was sitting, their bodies scissored. He slammed his lips to hers and sank his tongue into her mouth as her inner walls clenched him again and again.

When he could bear it no more he slipped from her body, dropping his hand to pump himself the rest of the way to completion until his seed spilled on her soft white belly.

Both still gasping, Sookie dropped her tired head to his shoulder and licked at the salt there.

"Why?"

"Sookie… I… I know you have only been with vampires," Sookie felt a searing jealousy and realized it originated from him. The barriers she'd only just discovered here in this place were slightly lowered, as she'd unconsciously wanted to be as in tuned to him as possible. She left them that way. "I know you've never had to worry about the possibility of children before…"

His words trailed off but he'd said enough. God, what an idiot she was. To just jump into something without stopping to think. But he had. He'd protected them. Protected her.

Now she was the one to draw their mouths together. It was a kiss of tenderness, of thanks.

She pulled away, a soft smile on her lips. His lips were tilted up as well, but she saw a pensiveness in his eyes.

Deciding that they had come out here to train after all, she closed her own eyes and consciously dove into his mind.

And screamed…

_Talako sat, cross legged, on the floor of his hut. A banked fire cast dancing shadows across his face. His eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling in deep meditation. He was seeing through the eyes of the spirit he'd summoned, an ancient being neither benign nor malevolent, that served the Fay. _

_He called it forth to find her._

_It surprised him to discover she was Angelo, with eyes a few shades lighter than his own, and golden hair. The spirit held her close now as she sobbed. It was a catharsis for a still healing grief; Talako felt glad he could bring her some relief._

_But then she looked up at it, at him it felt like, and seemed to intuit the deception. Anger was clear on her features and she held up glowing palms and blasted the interloper. The spirit dissipated, not dead because it didn't truly live._

_Talako was physically blown back as well, and lay gasping on the floor. His last thought before he lost consciousness was, 'My mate is powerful.'_

She pulled away from him, standing up and searching frantically for her smock. Finding it, she hastily pulled it over her head and slipped into her shoes.

"Sookie! Sookie!" She refused to look at him, and when he clasped her shoulder, angrily jerked away.

"Don't touch me!" Her words were broken by a sob. She felt used, and naïve. After all of her dealings with the Supe world, she should have known better. Should know nobody is what they seem.

"Please Sookie. It's dangerous for you out here alone." A frantic pleading had entered his tone.

It was too much. She whirled around, eyes blazing, and finally met his gaze. "Oh, right. It's dangerous out here. Just like it was dangerous for me back home, sitting on my own front porch. What was I thinking? I really should be more careful."

"I'm sorry Sookie. I just tried to give you the desire of your soul. The spirit manifested as your grandmother because she was what you wanted in that moment."

Pain stabbed her heart once again as she recalled the instant she knew _It_ wasn't Gran. "Oh? Getting sucked into a giant wormhole? Was that what I wanted? How about wandering around the woods at night nearly 200 years in the past? Or even better, falling into a pit and nearly getting staked. Were those secret longings of my heart?"

She was shaking from her rage, her hands fists at her sides.

He stood before her, sorrow on his face with no words to defend himself, and it was too much for her.

She spun around and stormed away.


	18. Chapter 18

His betrayal sliced through her insides like a razor-sharp knife. At first there had been shock, followed by outrage, and she'd stormed away, a flight response. And then, finally, the pain manifested.

Her heart pounded as she stumbled through the foliage, a deep hurt engulfing her.

He'd lied to her. From the beginning, he'd lied to her.

Just like Bill.

"Don't compare me to him." Talako made the statement from behind her and to the left. His tone held a quiet menace.

She whirled around, her fevered eyes met his, "Fuck you! Oh, wait, guess I already did. So now we can just go our merry ways!" She spun around, intent on getting away from him. Just looking at his face made her feel nauseous.

"Enough!" A tangible power vibrated through his voice in the single word. The fine hairs on her arms tingled and stood on end. Suddenly, she felt her body lifted and then she was floating through the air. Unseen forces deposited her before him, hovering half a foot off the ground and facing him. She tried to voice her protest, but her lips were heavy and numb, unmoving.

Working with what she had, her slitted eyes showed him her rage.

"Glare at me all you want, lass. I'll not have you in danger, traipsing through these woods in a huff, not looking where you're going. There are dangers, natural and otherwise." Now his tone changed, became softer, "Yes, I brought you here, to this time. I had hoped…once we met. Well, you felt a physical attraction, but it wasn't the same as the gut wrenching need I have. Not yet. But once we handfast..."

Sookie felt her immense anger swell further. How dare he magically manhandle her? After everything else? Making presumptions about _her_ future…

Within her, her power flexed, felt the iron hold of his power surrounding her. She drew a deep breath, at least she could still do that, and then exhaled, pushing all of her fury and hurt into his invisible barrier. At first, it held. Like bulletproof glass. Then a thousand tiny cracks began to form; she could feel them. With a rising sense of triumph, she pushed harder, and his shield shattered.

Her body immediately dropped and she stumbled when her feet hit the ground. He reached out to steady her, but she lashed out, "Do. Not. Fucking. Touch me." It was not an idle warning, as both of her palms glowed with fiery white light.

"You may as well kill me lass, if you intend to leave. I canna' live without you now," his brogue thickened in his emotion, "and you need me too."

There was a truth to his words she wasn't ready to acknowledge. When they'd made love, it had transcended anything physical… Dropping her palms, allowing the light to extinguish, she decided to focus on the first part of his statement.

"Could I leave? Can you send me back home?"

Talako took a breath as if to steady himself, and keeping her gaze, stated, "I don't know."

Annoyance stabbed through her. "Why should I believe anything you say?" He'd been so convincing when he'd feigned ignorance of the Gran-creature. The hurt returned, full force.

"I summoned the creature, Sookie. Because I needed you. I've lived for forty summers, and these last years I've felt a deep ache for my mate, but never found her."

Sookie was shocked at his revelation. He didn't look forty. She'd assumed he was close to her age. But the Fay were long lived, not immortal, but something approaching it. Those of diluted Fay blood still reaped some of this benefit. Sookie knew she didn't look her age, either. But it was all besides the point.

"What does that have to with anything?" Her annoyance was back and evident in her voice.

"I'd grown weary of passively waiting. When I was younger, my father shared stories of mates separated by time and space. It happens occasionally. There is an old magic, a, a… being that can be summoned for assistance. The being's ultimate purpose is balance. Remember the story of my mother and father?"

She would never forget it. At the loss of his wife, Talako's father's grief has manifested physically. Plants in their garden had withered and died. If Talako hadn't intervened, the destruction would have continued to grow and spread. Not to mention his father had been in a hellish pain.

"The being brings balance by uniting a mated pair. It's not good or evil in a way that you or I could understand. The spirit is driven by a need for harmony. You leaving here would create an unbalance, so I don't believe I could call on it for help if it meant separating you and me."

She was silent for a long moment as she took in his words, and then, "But you and I are not a mated pair. We're not handfasted."

She saw hurt flash through his gaze and was surprised at the regret she felt for causing it. He'd certainly brought her enough pain.

"You and I are meant to be together, Sookie."

"Says you." Blowing out a stream of air in frustration, another thought occurred to her. "Okay. So what if you come with me?"

"What do you mean?"

After striving to make sense of everything, it felt good to knock him a little off balance. "We summon the spirit and ask it to take us back to my time. Together here, in your time. Together in my time. What difference should it make? Right? As long as there's _balance_?" The last word carried a sardonic emphasis.

Her newfound shield was firmly up, so she couldn't read him at all. And she didn't believe he could pick up anything from her. So it was with a fair amount of surprise that she watched a smile stretch across his lips and a relieved light come into his eyes.

"Yes, lass. I believe we can try it."


	19. Chapter 19

Still suspicious of his easy acquiescence, Sookie eyed him warily from time to time as they made their way back to the village. She could read nothing in his face or body language, but she wasn't willing to drop her mental barrier.

They'd made a slight detour, heading back for Talako's blanket and satchel. Resources were too scarce to leave them to rot in the swamp's muggy air. Sookie didn't know how long it would take them to summon the spirit, and even if they could manage to invoke him…or it, it might not allow them to return. A blanket would be sorely missed as winter set in. And if they were somehow successful, and she could return home to her time and place, they could still pass the items on to other villagers for use.

But it was mighty vexing to see the rumbled blanket there on the forest floor.

Just a short while ago it had been a site of want and wonder; her soul had touched his. An ache she didn't even know was inside of her had been soothed. Involuntarily her mind flashed to ancient Greek stories learned in high school English, courtesy of Miss Cunningham, bless her heart. Miss C. had shared the tale of people born with two faces and four arms and feet. But the gods had feared the power of such beings, and Zeus split all people in two, fating them to spend their lives searching for their other half. Even then Sookie had figured it was a load of crapola. An especially rich pile of BS considering all the tales of adultery saturating Greek mythology.

But still, Talako and her had experienced something, felt a closeness that was now, well, stained… dirty.

She picked up the satchel and left the blanket for him, turning away and starting back to the village.

She failed to see the wistful need in his gaze as his eyes followed her retreat. Nor did she see the care in which he shook out the blanket and then neatly folded it under his arm before swiftly moving to join her.

...

They arrived back at the village with the sun still high overhead.

Had it only been last night she'd slept comfortably in his embrace?

Yes. Just as it had only been a handful of hours since she held him in her body.

_No matter. Suck it up, Sook. Maybe, just maybe, you can get yourself home._

Talako greeted a few villagers and turned down an offer for the two of them to join a family at their evening meal.

Sookie stretched her lips into a semblance of a smile and managed a few waves herself. These folks had been kind to her, it wouldn't do to be rude to them just 'cause she was in a snit with Talako.

Okay. More than a snit. She was fucking pissed.

She went into the hut first and plopped down on her sleeping mat.

The thought to build a fire crossed her mind, but then she flashed to her vision of Talako, cross-legged in a meditative pose in front of the banked fire pit, somehow seeing her with the Gran-creature. The fire may have been part of the ritual. Maybe there needed to be something special about it.

She looked up at him, expectantly, with anger still evident in her gaze. "Well, how do we get this show on the road?"

At his raised eyebrow, she realized the expression likely didn't translate to his place or time, but he seemed to understand her meaning well enough.

"I'll need your blood."

_Great. Didn't everybody?_

"How much?"

"Just a few drops. Enough to mix with my own to summon the being."

"You called it before, without anything from me," skepticism was heavy in her voice. It wouldn't be the first time someone had tried to bind her to them through her blood.

"Yes. I called it on my behalf to find my mate." He paused, holding her eyes for a beat. "Now, both of us are making a request. It will require an offering of both our life forces."

Talako crossed the hut and opened the rustic drawer, smoothly pulling out the dagger. It was still wrapped in her smock. With an air of reverence, and perhaps the barest hint of trepidation, he gently unwrapped the weapon and held it in his hand, the cloth falling to the packed earthen floor.

"I'm not touching that. Not again."

"You must."

_Hells bells._

Sookie blew out a gust of air then gnawed on her lower lip, studying him through slitted eyes. He held still for her, kept her gaze. He was there before her, armed, standing as she was sitting, the very reason she was here in the first place…but she didn't feel threatened. Actually, something very near the opposite. Was it possible to feel comfortable with somebody you didn't trust?

She pointed to his sleeping mat, "Go on an' sit." He did, keeping the knife in his palm. "Look, before we do anything, I need you to make me a promise. From here on out, you don't do anything behind my back. No attempts to move me through time and space. No tricks to bind me to you. Promise me."

He was quiet for several moments. Somehow that made Sookie feel good, that he was taking the time to really think about it. He'd been desperate enough to bring her here and would likely be willing to resort to desperate measures in the future. But he wouldn't break a promise. She just knew. It was said the Fay didn't, or couldn't, lie. But she didn't think that had anything to do with it; her intuition told her Talako would honor an oath.

Finally, "Aye, lass. I promise. I won't trick you. But I won't leave you. I'm willing to go to your time, if it means staying with you."

A different person would have accepted that and asked him to proceed with the ritual. She'd get home, that was all that should matter. But just as she asked for honesty, she needed to give it in return.

"Talako, I won't lie. I've got feelings for you. They're strong, but they're all mixed up. I'm not willing to commit to you, to some life partnership between us."

"I know that. Just let us be in the same place. The same time. The rest will come." He believed it. Believed their bond would shine true. For a moment, she envied his faith. She hadn't believed in anything like that, in, well, a long time.

She scooted over onto his mat and lifted her palm to him. He dropped his head and placed a closed mouth kiss on the delicate skin between her thumb and index finger.

Then, lifting back up, he brought the dagger to her palm and sliced.


	20. Chapter 20

She flinched, the recipient of deep cuts in the past. They were deceptive, causing a numbness at first before the pain set in. A lot like men that broke your heart.

But Talako had said he only needed a few drops, and true to his word, he barely grazed her skin, creating more of a scratch than a cut. A few beads of blood pooled along the shallow wound.

Sookie released a little sigh. Some part of her had been worrying about the knife bringing more flashes from Talako's past. But it had acted as any other blade.

Talako quickly placed the dagger at his own palm and sliced.

He sat the weapon down on the mat, and with his uninjured hand created a fireball.

The fiery sphere mesmerized Sookie. Its deep blue flames very nearly matched Talako's eyes.

With a flick of his hand he shot the flame to the fire pit. The pit held only cold ashes; the pile of neatly stacked firewood still lay across the room. But the flame burned on, purely blue despite the lack of fuel.

Talako reached back down for the knife, and with a single fingertip caught the droplets on Sookie's palm and smeared them on the blade. He followed suit with his own blood.

Here, he took a breath and looked up into Sookie's gaze.

"Remember lass, this creature is not evil. But it's not strictly good either. It craves balance."

She arched an eyebrow at him. He'd already said this.

Reading her expression, he continued. "What I mean is I don't want you to be afraid. Not like last time…" His voice trailed off.

"Last time I thought I was being granted a few precious moments with my grandmother. I was afraid, sure. But more than anything, I was pissed when I realized I'd been tricked." The blue flame in the pit paled next to the fiery anger in her eyes. Talako had deceived her; the being had merely been his tool.

Talako nodded, seeming to accept her anger as his due.

"If at any time you want to banish the creature, throw the knife into the flame. Once the blood burns away, it will be gone."

Sookie nodded and admitted to herself, at least, that there were tendrils of fear unfurling in her gut. It was good to know a sure way to get rid of the thing, though she'd managed it on her own last time.

She could do this. _ They_ could do this.

She sat back crossed legged on the mat. Talako joined her.

Staring into the flames, Talako began to chant.

Sookie couldn't decipher the words. They weren't Choctaw, she knew that much. It had the same guttural emphasis, sounds rising from the back of Talako's throat. But she didn't recognize a single word, and it was just different from the language she'd been surrounded by these last few weeks.

_Some sort of Celtic tongue?_

_Gaelic?_

_Perhaps._

The train of thought left her as she saw a face emerge in the flame.

It didn't look like Gran this time.

It was vaguely humanoid.

The blue flames created a contrast of light and shadows, the face barely perceptible.

_Like seeing Jesus on a blue corn tortilla. _

Sookie tried to contain the giggle the thought brought, but it escaped her as a half muffled snort.

Immediately the face clarified, took shape and form before her horrified gaze. Its eyes found hers, drawn by her sound.

Its pupils were black, slitted…like a cat's, or a snake's.

Predatory. Definitely predatory.

Talako said it wasn't evil. But Sookie got the notion it was used to being the most powerful thing in a room.

"My name is Sookie Stackhouse, though I guess you already know that. I'd be much obliged if you could return me home." Talako's hand reached for hers and gave a squeeze. She wasn't sure if he was offering support or trying to encourage caution. Whatever. Her blood had helped bring this thing here, and she needed to get back to her time.

"I am well aware of who and what you are Sookie Stackhouse, great-granddaughter of Niall Brigant, of the Sky people. Do you know who and what I am?" It spoke in smooth, unaccented English.

Sookie decided the voice was masculine. "No, sir. Not really. But I know you brought me here, so I figure you can take me back."

The creature smiled. "Ah, but that's not what you asked for. You said, 'Return you home.' According to your people, to the Fay blood flowing in your veins, your home is wherever you mate is. And he sits here by your side. A matched pair. Harmony. My job is done."

Geez.

Though her mental shields were firmly up, she could swear she could pick up a smugness radiating from Talako.

Fine. She could play hardball.

"You and I both know that's not completely true."

Talako interjected, "Sookie, we are mates."

"No. That's not what I'm talking about." That was an issue for another time, between just him and her. She turned her focus back to the creature. "You dropped me smack dab on the precipice of a time of _Great Change_." She stated the last two words with emphasis, but some part of her, even in this moment, was tickled to use 'precipice' in a sentence. It had been on her Word-of-the-Day calendar a while back. Who knew her opportunity to use it would be with an ancient Fay guardian? At another time, the thought would have brought a smile. Now she continued somberly, "The Long Walk will happen, in what? A year? Two? I'm from this state. _I read._ You think I'm gonna let these kind folks that have taken me in march off to die in the dead of winter? I don't think so. But when an entire village, heck, maybe a couple of villages elude the whites, don't you think that's gonna screw with the history books? Where will your balance be then?"

The being didn't respond.

But suddenly she and Talako were engulfed in blazing blue light. She screwed her eyes shut against its intensity.

Even through her eyelids she knew the blue had morphed to a soft yellow.

When the brightness reached a tolerable level, Sookie opened her eyes. They were sprawled on the floorboards of her porch, with afternoon sunlight streaming down on them.


	21. Chapter 21

For a moment Sookie allowed herself to lay back against the weathered wood of the porch, her fingers digging into its gritty surface. Relief, sharp and bright, shot through her.

Home.

She was home.

Unbidden, Talako's thoughts slammed into her consciousness.

_It worked, thank ye Lord. And we're together; it's all that matters. What is that? A metal carriage? The knife was left behind. No returning. _

She immediately raised her mental barriers, and the barrage stopped.

Shakily, she started to rise to her feet. Talako, already standing, reached out an arm in support.

She deliberated a moment before accepting.

Clasping his forearm, she pulled herself up. Studying his eyes, she asked, "So did you plan to return? For us to return?"

She knew she could drop the barrier and get the uncensored truth. But she didn't want that much… intimacy. Not right now, the sting of his deception was too new, too raw. Instead, she relied on his eyes to reveal his intent. His gaze was direct, unflinching. "No. But it's…unsettling. To know we don't have the option."

Okay. She could understand that.

"It's a bitch, huh? The loss of control over your own frickin' life?" She wasn't one for catty comments, not really. But the words still slipped through her lips.

She was still angry at him. His willingness to come to her time hadn't changed that.

Hurt flashed across his face, but he quickly concealed it. Some part of her was sorry. But another part knew he just really didn't get it. Didn't get the pain and the worry and the fear he'd caused her. He believed the whole 'mate thing' gave him card blanche to do as he saw fit.

"I'm sorry, Sookie." His tone was low, subdued but sincere.

The afternoon sunlight made his black hair shimmer nearly blue. _Like a raven's feather_ she thought. She hated that she had the urge to run her fingers through the glossy strands.

"You're sorry I'm upset." Then, before he could say more, she rushed on, "Look, let's drop it for now. This is my home. Let's go on inside and make sure we really landed in the right time." She knew he already knew this was her house, from those first seconds when they'd returned and their minds had been connected. That was also her 'metal carriage' is the graveled driveway, so she was pretty sure the creature had returned them to approximately the right time.

The graveled drive just led to reminders of who had gifted it to her, and she made a mighty effort to block the thought of what a certain tall blond would think of her new houseguest.

_Jesus Christ, Sheppard of Judea. One thing at a time. _

Entering her living room went a long way to bringing her some peace. The familiar squeak of the well trodden floorboards helped loosen her tense shoulders, and though one wasn't burning, the residual aroma of her orange ginger candles permeated the air and wrapped her in the scent of home.

She quickly crossed the room and jiggled the mouse next to her computer.

The screen lit up, some nature shot of glaciers off the Alaskan coast. She'd never been there, of course, but she felt good when she looked at it. She wasn't looking at it now. Her attention was focused on the time and date displayed in the bottom right corner of the monitor.

A day.

She'd been gone a day.

It had been weeks with the Choctaw.

Her mind reeled, trying to take it in.

Opposite of how it had been with the Fay. In the Fay realm it had felt like an hour, maybe two, but a year had passed here at home.

What did it mean? _Hell, Sook, it doesn't matter._ It was actually easier this way. No need for explanations as today would have been her day off anyway. Not that Sam would notice with how distracted he'd been lately.

Breathing easier, she turned to face Talako. The relief must have been evident on her face because he gave her a smile, one she found herself returning, lips stretching wide.

"We did it! We're back. Just a day went by here."

"You're back." There was no anger in his words; he just stated the truth. "Sookie, what did you mean when you spoke to the creature about change?" The smile on her lips died and withered into a grimace.

"Okay, well, it's gonna be a long story. Let me put on some coffee. Why don't you go on and sit down there." She gestured to the swivel chair by the computer before heading off to the kitchen.

As she measured out the coffee grounds she realized her hands were trembling. The coffee had been an excuse to get herself together, to come up with a plan of action. No matter how mad she was at Talako, she didn't want to see him hurt, not in the way she was about to hurt him. It was going to be the soul shattering kind of pain. His people, the life he knew…

Fighting back the gathering moisture in her eyes, Sookie admonished herself: _You're stronger than this_!

It had to be done. He needed to know. For the first time since she'd learned to mind-connect with Talako, she made the conscious choice to drop her shields.

She returned to the living room, two steaming cups of coffee in hand, her mind open and broadcasting her intentions.

He took the hot mugs from her hands and sat them on the desk.

He pulled her onto his lap. She didn't protest. This wasn't sexual. The contact helped with the sharing. And it was comforting, to them both.

She looked into his blue eyes, wide and filled with resolve, and she shared.

She shared it from her perspective: from her years in school; from tidbits picked up from songs and films; from simply being a Louisiana native. The specific facts and figures could come later, from the computer or she could take him down to the library.

She shared her heart with him.

_The Trail of Tears. Thousands perished on the march. Reservations. Spoiled food rations. Starvation. Disease. Ethnic cleansing. Broken treaties. Forced assimilation. Boarding schools. Poverty. _

Tears were openly streaming down her cheeks now. Talako pressed his face to hers, his own eyes bright.

But there was the good, too. She was glad to be able to show him, to give him that, at least.

_Reorganization. New lands set aside. The Civil Rights Movement. Cultural revival. Education. Hope._

After a time, Sookie sat up and put her mental walls back in place. She was too close to an emotional overload. Wiping at her wet face, she stood up and went to a nearby chair.

"There's more. So much more. But that's what I know of it. I'll show you how to use the machine behind you to learn more."

Talako nodded, then swallowed heavily. "You lied to the creature." It was a statement, not a question.

"What?" confusion was evident in Sookie's voice.

"You think it was all inevitable. Too big to change."

She nodded and then said, "Yeah. Yeah, I really do. I think some things are so ugly they leave an eternal scar on humanity. But they happen. I don't know why, but they do. I figure they happen for a reason, somehow in some way." Her mind went to her parents, to their early deaths. Why did anything bad happen to anyone?

Talako stood, the motion sudden. "I'm going to go for a walk."

At first, Sookie thought to protest. For him it was a dangerous new world. He could be hit by a car, or worse. But the look on his face said he needed some time, time under an open sky with lots of fresh air. The woods surrounding the house were significant; he would be okay.

"Okay. But please, just stay away from the road. Stay in the woods."

He nodded and stepped back through the door to the porch and was soon out of sight.


	22. Chapter 22

Though she couldn't fully relax, because damnit, she worried about Talako wandering around in the friggin' 21st century, no matter how remote and rural the area was, she also felt a measure of relief.

It was nice to have a moment to herself.

Living in the village these last weeks, she'd been under constant scrutiny. Growing up in Bon Temps, being different, she was used to it, at least to a certain extent. But it had been concentrated among the villagers, stronger. At first they'd watched her because of her blonde hair and fair skin. Then they'd watched her because of her powers. But there had also been a feeling of acceptance and gratitude for the help she'd offered.

She would miss them.

Now, from the safety of her living room, she considered what a lifetime among them would have been like. Her looks and abilities had been a novelty to them. But that would have faded with enough time. She could have lived her life with them, fulfilling the role of medicine woman. Respected. Comfortable. Doing some bit of good. Living in a simple manner. No more ten hour shifts bringing folks grease saturated food so she could maybe scrounge up enough tips to pay her light bill. No more vampire politics. No more being a sitting duck for whatever supe came along wanting to take advantage of her.

It was a horribly indulgent thought. One without any basis in reality. Had she stayed, she would have been witness to the Choctaw's forced removal from their lands and the death of their way of life.

Some things are simply not meant to be.

Unbidden, Ohoyo's wayward vision of blue eyed children running through the village came to Sookie's mind. It brought an ache to her chest that surprised her; something…wistfulness perhaps, stabbed through her. In her passion for Bill and then Eric, she'd been willing to forgo the thought of children. It had never been a topic of conversation, and it wasn't as if either of them could biologically father a child anyway.

With Talako, it was different. Possibility was there, and the intangible became something more real. Something, that surprisingly, wasn't completely unwelcome… family.

_Whoa, whoa, whoa! Stop right there, Sookie Stackhouse! _

She wasn't ready to have this man's babies!

But the thought of it possibly, maybe, someday happening in the distant future wasn't completely repugnant.

Pushing that particular synapse misfire into a back closet of her mind and firmly slamming the door on it, she decided it had been entirely too long since she'd enjoyed the benefit of hot running water. Time to remedy that.

The shower was glorious. She stood beneath the spray for nearly twice as long as normal, reveling in the frothy lavender body soap. It sure beat handfuls of gritty sand. Back in the village, she had observed mothers scooping up handfuls of river sand from the shallows and using it to scrub their young children. She'd followed suit, telling herself it was great exfoliation. But damn, this was so much better.

Finally stepping out and toweling herself off, she could hear movement from the vicinity of the kitchen. She hadn't sensed anybody, human or supe. It could only be Talako. She dropped her mental shields just enough to confirm.

Yup. It was him. And his emotions were a roiling, boiling mess. Guess the walk hadn't helped much.

And he was hungry as an ol' bear, currently standing in her kitchen staring at a box of mac 'n' cheese in puzzlement.

Well, it wasn't like she'd had much time to run to the grocery store with everything that had been happening before she was sucked into a giant time vortex by a Fay guardian-demon thing.

Oh well, they'd make due.

She entered the kitchen wrapped in her old terrycloth robe and offered him a tentative smile. She knew he was hurting. She didn't know how to fix that, but she could feed him.

"You're back quicker than I thought."

He nodded, "Yes. I realized I was being foolish, wandering through an unknown place when I don't know its dangers." It lay unspoken between them that he'd very recently reprimanded her for the same, when she'd stormed off into the woods upon learning of his deception.

She made a noncommittal, "Hmm," and then asked, "You're hungry. How 'bout some eggs?"

"That would be wonderful, lass." He managed a smile, albeit a small one, but it was enough to give her some hope that he would be okay.

She began the familiar dance around her kitchen, measuring out coffee, filling the pot with water, setting out milk, eggs, and salt and pepper. She popped some toast into the toaster and got a skillet heating.

As she cracked the eggs into a shiny white porcelain bowl, she asked him, "How familiar were the woods to you?"

"Very much the same. Dirt roads cutting through them. And one hard, black stone road with yellow stripes. But the trees, the vegetation is largely the same." He gave it some more thought and added, "The air's different."

"I know! That's what I noticed too!" Without giving it conscious thought, she lowered her shields and shared her theories with him. Thoughts are often more than words. They're images and emotions; sometimes they're the memory of a scent. She sent him a plethora of impressions: segments from late night shows on the science channel about global warming, both human induced and natural; images of landfills and plastic bottles that would be around for a thousand years; sitting in middle school science and learning of Pangaea and tectonic plates; an article she'd read that said the Sahara desert had once been a tropical oasis. But there, among all of that, was the thought that change is always inevitable. The force of change, rather geological, political, or otherwise, would always shape the earth and her people.

This brought Talako's thoughts to his people. To the change that they would soon suffer. And the fact he wouldn't be there to help them.

With an anguished cry, he stood abruptly, the kitchen chair he'd sat in tumbling to its side.

Sookie went to him.

She hadn't meant to cause him pain; she'd just been attempting some small talk and to get a meal in his belly. For the life of her, she didn't know why she'd opened her thoughts to him.

Lifting her palms to settle on his shoulders, she met his eyes. "Talako, I'm sorry." She didn't know what else to say. She couldn't tell him it would be okay, because the history books clearly showed that it hadn't been.

She kissed his chin, where she could reach, just wanting to bring some amount of comfort. The contact was gentle, nurturing, like a mother kissing a child's hurt.

In the next instance, Talako's lips locked onto hers, his tongue forcefully seeking and finding entry into her warm mouth.

At first Sookie resisted the violence of the action. Her palms dropped to his chest, and she attempted to push him away.

He didn't step away from her, but he lifted his head from the kiss and met her eyes. He lifted a single calloused finger to her cheek and gently traced the path of a tear she hadn't realized she'd shed.

Something that had been tightly knotted inside of her unraveled, and then she was slamming her lips to his, wrapping her arms securely around his neck and pulling him down to her, into her.

His urgent fingers went to the sash of the robe, and he pulled the garment from her, discarding it by the toppled chair. His strong hands reached around and clasped her bottom, and then he was lifting her to the kitchen table and pushing himself in between her splayed thighs. Sookie's fingers were also frantic and searching, tearing at the material of his shirt, trying to get to his bare chest. His lips dropped to nuzzle her throat and she was vaguely aware the keening sound filling the kitchen was coming from her.

She had just pushed enough of his shirt away to lick at one small, masculine nipple when a voice spoke from the doorway.

"Lover, you are not the woman I thought you were."

Disoriented from passion, Sookie looked around Talako's wide shoulders and met Eric's piercing gaze.

Anguish and anger filled his features. Then, in a vampiric blur, he was gone.


	23. Chapter 23

For a moment, Sookie was simply frozen.

Talako's muscular body remained nestled against the softness of hers; her hand was still splayed across his chest, and she could feel the steady rhythm of his heart beneath her fingertips.

But her thoughts were not with the man in her arms, but followed Eric out into the darkening night. It was barely past twilight; he must have come directly to her from a sleeping place nearby. To Eric, it had only been twenty-four hours, actually a little less, since she'd told both him and Bill she couldn't be with either of them. Bill would honor her wishes and give her some space. It was part of his Southern gentleman code of honor. But Eric was a plunderer, used to taking what he wanted. It shouldn't have been a surprise that he showed up here tonight. It was that trait, in part, that had led her to realize nothing long-term could ever exist between them. That, and the fact he was a vampire.

Talako gently dropped his forehead to hers and whispered, "I'm sorry, lass." _Not sorry for kissing you, never that, but sorry for your discomfort_. In her distress, Sookie's shields guarding her thoughts from Talako had dropped. Strangely enough, the realization didn't upset her.

With a calming breath, she stretched up and planted a kiss on Talako's cheek. "Yeah, well, I apologize for landing you in the middle of that. I'm not the kind of woman this type of thing happens to." Then, after a pause, "Well, I used to not be."

Her heart hurt, thinking of Eric's pain. With a small jolt, she realized she'd seen the devastation clear as day there in his eyes, but she hadn't _felt_ it.

Turning to Talako, he answered her question before she could voice it. "I'm not sure either, but it could have something to do with our bond. The fact that we're a mated pair. Our connection would likely cancel the vampiric link between you." _Imagine how much stronger our bond will be after we're hand fasted. _

Catching that little gem from his mind, Sookie put her barriers firmly back up. She soooo wasn't ready to go there. Glancing at the smoking pan on the stove, she was reminded she'd promised Talako some eggs. And it was likely Eric would have returned to Fangtasia, and moving at his amped up speed, he was probably getting into Shreveport right about now.

Minutes later she placed a plate of scrambled eggs in front of Talako and then excused herself. She grabbed her cordless phone and headed into her bedroom. Dialing Eric's office number by heart, she was surprised it rang as long as it did. Finally, after nearly a dozen rings, a breathy feminine voice answered, "Eric Northman's office," there was a squeal and heavy breathing, then the woman continued, "Mr. Northman is, ah, busy right now. But I can take a message."

Sookie hit the off button and stood staring at the phone in her hand. Well, that had been fast work. Somewhere inside of her a dull ache throbbed. It wasn't jealousy, not exactly; it was more along the lines of loss. It was grief over the death of a relationship she'd already decided she didn't want. She wished him well. She truly did. Some part of her even felt pity for the fangbanger he'd decided to use for the evening.

Literally shaking her head to clear it, she realized fully for the first time that Talako's presence was going to impact other people. Some more than others, but she and Talako needed to decide on a course of action. Would they tell folks, or at least supe folks, the truth or any part of the truth? Would that potentially open them up to any sort of danger? Duh. Nix that idea. Two Fay for the price of one; the buffet is open. Okay. Cover story. She needed a good one.

But her frazzled brain didn't bring any brilliant ones to light, so she decided she could do with a plate of eggs too. They'd get a good night's sleep tonight… in separate beds. When they woke up in the morning perspective would be gained over a pot of coffee.

Heading back to the kitchen, she found Talako scraping his plate clean.

"Okay. Here's the deal. If I cook, you do dishes." She smiled at his raised brow. Among the Choctaw there were clearly defined gender roles, and kitchen detail of any sort didn't fall on the list of manly duties. Among the whites it had pretty much been the same deal. Well, welcome to the twenty-first century.

She showed him how to work the faucet and the amount of soap to add to the dishwater, and then began fixing her own plate of food. She had to hand it to him, Talako was a trooper. Not only did he wash the dishes, he wiped down the counters and table as well. As she ate, she saw him eyeing the microwave and coffee pot, so she explained the purpose of each gadget.

"You know, you're handling this time travel thing better than I did."

"Sookie, I had time to prepare. You did not. I also had glimpses into this time from your thoughts."

She nodded, "True. But still. It's a lot to wrap your head around."

"It is indeed 'a lot to wrap my head around', though I'm trying mightily." There was a smile on his face as he played with what was obviously a new phrase for him. She responded with a wide grin of her own. She was glad he could still smile, that he could find joy even after all that he'd learned of his people.

"Would you like a shower?" At his look of confusion, she continued, "Um, to bathe?"

"Yes, I would like to bathe. Will it be like cleaning the dishes, running hot water?"

"You betcha." And again, despite the stressful events of the evening, her lips stretched into a smile as she led him down the hall.


	24. Chapter 24

Sookie showed Talako the wonders and workings of a modern bathroom- though 'modern' might have been too kind a label for the tiny room with its dated fixtures and squeaky floorboards. But heck, it beat a handful of sand and cold river water. Talako was a fast study, and quickly adjusted the water to a temperature of his liking. He then proceeded to peel his shirt from his torso and toss it casually on the floor. When his hands reached for his breeches, Sookie retreated to the door. Though his muscled back was to her, she could see enough of his profile to know he was grinning. Well, fine by her, he was just gonna have to figure out the shampoo on his own…and she hightailed it outta there.

Eric's surprise visit had left her unsettled and needing some think-time, but she also knew her temptation threshold—and a fully naked Talako was beyond her ability to resist.

_And he damn well knew it too!_ Sookie was aware a grin of her own stretched across her face.

She headed to the blessed solitude of her bedroom, but the emptiness left her feeling restless instead of peaceful. Sookie found herself reaching for the phone and dialing Jason's number. To him, she'd spoken to him just yesterday. But for her it had been weeks, and she'd thought of him while living among the Choctaw, her nearest blood, and wondered if they'd ever see each other again. Though they weren't particularly close, he was her brother, and her connection with him went beyond just the two of them. He represented family to her—her last tie with Momma and Daddy, with Gran.

The phone rang and rang. She was getting ready to hang up when Jason answered, his voice harried. "Sook?"

"Uh, hey. Is everything okay? Should I call back later?"

"What? Nah, nah. Everything's good. So what's up? You doin' alright?"

"Yeah," she mentally cringed that his first thought would be that she was in some type of crisis and in need of assistance. Though she had to acknowledge that was often the case in the past. "I'm good, really. Just wanted to call and say howdy." There was a beat of silence, so she rushed on, "Actually, I'm thinking about having a little dinner." She'd been thinking no such thing, but the words tumbled out and she liked the sound of them. It would be nice to catch up, to spend some time with him that didn't involve any supernatural critters trying to kill them. "You free tomorrow night?"

"Tomorrow night?" Jason wasn't really the plan-in-advance kinda guy, but it was possible he already had a date for the next evening. Hell, knowing Jason, he might have a couple of women lined up. "No, nothin' goin' on tomorrow night. That sounds nice, Sook. Real nice. I'll be there. Want me to bring anything?" His voice had gained enthusiasm as he spoke. He seemed quite taken with the idea, and she felt a twinge of guilt that perhaps she should have been trying harder to maintain a closer relationship with him.

"Um, well, how about a dessert?" She knew it would be something he picked up from the Piggly Wiggly bakery, but it would make him feel good to contribute.

"Sure thing! What time do you want me?"

"How 'bout 6:00?"

"Can do. 'Kay Sook, see you then."

"Okay," and then before he could hang up, she added, "love ya, Jason."

The line was quiet, but she knew he'd heard her. Then, his voice all gruff and raspy, he responded, "Love you too, Sis. Bye bye."

She clicked the end button on her cordless and held it to her chest for a moment, a small smile on her face.

"That was your brother?"

Talako likely knew all about Jason from her thoughts while she had been in the village. "Yup, that was him. He's going to have dinner with us tomorrow night." Sookie turned to him as she spoke. He stood propped in the doorway, a towel riding low on his hips.

"It will be an honor to meet him." Despite his state of undress, the words were spoken with dignity and held the solemn tone of a promise. Sookie didn't need to be able to read his mind to know his intentions. Any family member of hers would be important to him—because _she_ was important to him. She was the most important part of his life. He had left everything for her. The full impact of his decision slammed into her.

She also realized a big part of the reason she wanted Jason to come over was to meet Talako. She wanted Jason to like him—to accept him. Despite the muddled mess of her thoughts, her heart recognized the feelings of warmth and security Talako inspired in her. He felt like family—so she wanted him to meet her family and be embraced by it.

Sookie crossed the room with slow, steady steps, her gaze trained on Talako's face. His thick lashes cast shadows across his strong cheek bones, but Sookie could still see his blue eyes. They were like sapphires in the lamplight, shimmering with an internal flame. His stare was pure heat.

She reached him and put a single hand flat to his chest, directly above his heart. She felt its steady rhythm, faster than normal, as were the breaths he drew into his lungs. Her body followed his lead, her nipples tightening. It turned her on to know she turned him on.

Still only touching him with the single flattened palm, she dragged it down the defined muscles of his stomach, and then slowly lower, until she reached the place where the towel tented outward. She cupped him in her hand, and he more than filled it. A single, quiet moan escaped him, and she leaned forward and stretched up to touch her lips to his—a chaste kiss. But then she dropped her mental barriers and let him feel the depth of her want, her sadness for Eric, and her surprise at herself to know she wanted Talako despite it.

Talako released something very like a growl and crushed his mouth to hers. Sookie kissed him with everything she had. He hoisted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, his hardness grinding against her center and her breasts crushed to his chest. She managed to gasp, "Bedroom." Still kissing her he walked them down the hallway to her room.

Despite their mutual urgency, Talako set her gently on the bed before quickly stripping away her clothes. There was no more foreplay, no teasing. He spread her thighs wide and settled above her. Just as he pushed into her body, hot and wet for him, she looked up and met his eyes and gave voice to the words her mind had already told him.

"I love you."

"And I love you. Always, _mo chuisle_."

**A/N~ A very big thanks to anyone still sticking with this story. I apologize for the long period between updates, I don't really have any good excuse except life has been in what I shall label a transitional phase. **_**Mo chuisle**_** means "my pulse" in Celtic, a way to say "my love" or "my life". **


	25. Chapter 25

Jason had always had a thing for breakfast for dinner, so Sookie decided on sausage gravy and buttermilk biscuits, scrambled eggs, and fresh melon slices. She loved the light citric fragrances released by the honey dew and cantaloupe as she cleaned them, and they offered a nice contrast to the heavy—albeit delicious, scent of fried sausage hanging in the air. Her fingers sticky with juice, she covered the bowl containing the melon slices with Saran wrap and popped it into the fridge. The gravy was already ready to go, simmering in Gran's old cast iron pan on very low heat. She'd probably have to add a splash of milk to get it back to the right consistency, but it was fine for now.

Talako was in the living room, exploring the marvels of the Internet. She hoped he didn't stumble upon anything too horrific. But then again, with his telepathy, he was well acquainted with the darker elements of the human psyche. Still… there were sure a few things she'd wished she'd never seen online.

Her old radio was on, and she called out above the drone of a used car lot commercial. "You doin' okay in there?"

Talako didn't respond immediately, so she poked her head through the doorway. Whatever he was staring at held him transfixed.

She walked across the room, wiping her hand on a paper towel as she went, then burst into laughter when she got a good look at the computer screen coupled with the look on Talako's face.

"I…I typed fairy, and then selected this, uh…" he was both stuttering and searching for a term. Plus Sookie could swear he was blushing.

Wiping tears of mirth from the corners of her eyes, she helpfully supplied, "Link. You selected that link," before another fit of giggles escaped her.

Somewhere, someone out there had taken the derogatory meaning of 'fairy' and embraced it. Talako had landed on a male escort service site. Their banner showed two young, attractive men, bare-chested and clad in skintight black leather pants locked in a steamy kiss. Something about the angle of their heads and the restrained ardor in their posturing made the photo more sensual than garish, despite the leather and goofy site name.

Sookie tilted her head and studied it. "Huh, that's kinda hot."

Talako looked up at her, brow arched. "You mean it is sexually arousing?"

"Well, to some folks, sure. I just meant it's artistic, a little bit beautiful." Among the Choctaw homosexuality wasn't shunned as it was among the Protestant whites of the early 19th century. But Talako was a product of both worlds, so perhaps that accounted for his shock.

Sookie asked him, "Does this offend you?"

Talako immediately shook his head. "No, it just seems like something that should be private." She could tell there was more to it than that.

"I'm gonna drop my shields, 'kay?" After last night she was getting more comfortable with her mind connection with him, but she still wasn't ready for a 24-7 uninterrupted flow. She needed a little space that was her own, even if it was just within the boundaries of her own mind.

"Of course." He accepted readily. Last night, as they lay sleepy and entangled in her cotton sheets, she'd read his desire for them to stay linked…permanently. Panic had set in, and she'd immediately blocked him. She loved him and was willing to take on the repercussions of what that meant—but gradually. She wasn't ready for a constant connection, for the loss of her individuality as she perceived it. Talako had stiffened, but didn't pull away. She'd consciously dropped her barriers so he could understand her jumbled emotions; it had seemed a better, and even more natural choice than attempting to put it all into words. He'd nodded and kissed her forehead, and all had been well.

So now she opened her mind to him, gaining comfort with their two-way telepathy, and thought perhaps there would come a time when she would allow a more lasting connection.

The image of the men embracing didn't offend Talako; his embarrassment stemmed from his own reaction to the photo. It dredged up memories for him. Sookie suddenly felt bad for laughing at him. Since he'd waited for his mate, people had questioned his sexuality. When he was a young man, before he'd fully established himself as an ambassador for the Choctaw and a translator, his peers had often ribbed him for refusing to bed down with any of the willing females that were constantly offering themselves to him. One evening, the younger brother of a good friend had approached him and offered his bed. It was the first time Talako realized what others had been speculating. He'd politely refused, doing his best not to hurt the young man's pride. But Talako had realized that there was enough of his father's culture in him to feel a sense of shame that people would think such a thing about him. And that had bothered him. From his parents' relationship he knew that love was vast and unfathomable, and deeply private. It wasn't a thing for outsiders to judge.

Standing behind him as he sat in her office chair, she dropped her arms down to hug his neck and pressed her right cheek into his warm throat. She kissed the place where his pulse beat and then drew back to speak. "I guess this site's more about lust than anything else. Sex is just a product they're selling. But baby, I don't think we can help our first reactions to things, at least not most of the time. That shame you had doesn't mean you're judgmental. It just means for a big part of your childhood you were raised in New Orleans among the whites, and your environment taught you to react to that type of thing with shame. But right after that first gut reaction, you paused and gave it some thought. It's the way we react to stuff after we've had some think time that matters."

Talako swiveled in the chair until he was facing her, then scooper her into his lap.

Sookie squealed, she'd forgotten how fast he could move when he wanted to. Settling in, she rested her head on his chest as he dropped his chin down the nestle her blonde hair. "Like last night, when you slammed up your shields? That was just your first reaction. But then you kept them up all day."

She sighed, aware she'd nearly put them back up again when he'd approached the topic. Instead, very deliberately…and rather painfully, she left herself open to him. She didn't respond verbally, but allowed him to hear and to feel her slow, but growing acceptance of their mind-speak.

"Aye, lass. I understand. It's only ever been one way for you. You could hear others, but your mind was your own. It will take some time to adjust to." Her thoughts leapt to protest. She had shared a link of sorts, a vampiric link to be precise, first with Bill and then Eric. But that had been more vague, there had been a sense of the other's emotions but specific thoughts had been private.

Jealously surged through Talako; Sookie could feel it as well as hear it in his mind. But there were also ribbons of understanding. "You still need to settle your affairs with the tall, blond one."

"Yeah, I need to say goodbye to Eric the right way. I'm gonna go see him tonight after dinner."

To his credit, Talako didn't protest or immediately insist that he accompany her—though both thoughts shot through his brain.

"You are a powerful Fay woman, Sookie. I know that you are able to defend yourself. And I will trust your judgment in this matter. But know this: I will be waiting in your bed for your return."

Sookie nodded and pressed her lips to his just as she heard Jason call out his arrival from the porch. She jumped up, making feminine fussing motions over her hair and clothes.

"Oh, shoot. I don't even have the biscuits going yet."


	26. Chapter 26

Jason and Talako hit it off pretty well. Sookie admitted to herself she was a little surprised. Not that she'd expected it to go badly, but she'd figured both men would respond to each other with sort of an awkward politeness. At the worst, she'd thought perhaps Jason would peacock around a bit, tossing about the protective brother spiel. And he had. But Talako had seemed to gain a respect for him because of it. The next thing Sookie knew, the men were raptly discussing quail hunting and from there she'd had plenty of time to get the biscuits on.

"Okay men folk, no more talk of dead critters or ways to kill little critters while we're having dinner."

Both men complied, though Jason harrumphed, "Well, we're fixin' to have sausage, ain't we? Guess that pig didn't die of natural causes."

"No, Jason Stackhouse, I guess he didn't. But that doesn't mean we have to dwell on it as we sit down to have ourselves a civilized dinner."

"Gosh, Sook. You sound so much like Gran, it's downright freaky," Jason responded, giving her one of his devilish half grins and a wink. Sookie rolled her eyes at him and gave him an affectionate shove on his right shoulder as she passed him to take her seat.

Jason surprised her by asking if they minded if he said grace. "We don't get together as much as we used to. Sittin' down for a meal, it feels like old times. Seems right."

Sookie felt her throat tighten up a little, but she managed a smile. "That sounds real nice, Jason. Go ahead."

The three of them joined hands and bowed their heads. Jason had never been the church type. She couldn't recall him ever volunteering to say a prayer. But he did a nice job, sharing a few words of thanks before lifting his head and saying, "Okay then!" as he enthusiastically reached for a biscuit with each hand.

The dinner passed quickly. Sookie couldn't decide if it was because their time together was so surprisingly pleasant, or if it was due to the trepidation she felt for her task ahead. She'd told herself she'd settle things with Eric before the night was through.

Jason gripped Talako's hand in a hearty goodbye, and then Sookie felt herself being pulled into her brother's arms for a bear hug. The overt gesture worried Sookie enough that she poked into his brain for the barest of moments, needing to ensure that everything was okay. Her brother wasn't harboring some dire secret. All was well; he was simply reveling in the mood of the evening. He was glad to see her with somebody that he felt she was safe with.

She stood watching her brother's taillights fade. When she could see them no more, she turned to Talako.

"I'm gonna head on into Shreveport."

Talako nodded slowly. "I've already said my peace, lass. I'll be here." He started to turn away to walk back into the house, but Sookie rushed up to him and pressed herself to his chest, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing tight.

"I love you, Talako." It felt good, so she said it again. "I love you, and I'm coming back. I just have to take care of this." Their lips met, an exchange of comfort and assurance more than passion. Talako was the one to break free. He said no more, but gave her the barest of smiles before disappearing into the house.

Sookie took a minute to center herself. She thought about what she wanted, what she really wanted, and knew he'd just been standing before her. His blue eyes and dark hair flashed before her eyes. It was true, her physical attraction to him was immense. But that wasn't at the root of her achy yearning or the sense of rightness she had with him. It was more…something she couldn't quite describe. His confidence, his capacity for gentleness, his strength. Perhaps it really was as simple as saying he was her other half. They were a mated pair. She was ready to give the notion some credence.

But not until she'd settled what needed settling.

She stepped inside and grabbed her purse and keys. She could hear Talako cleaning up in the kitchen and it made her smile. Hopping into her old yellow clunker, she switched off the radio. On any other night she'd sing along, cheerfully off-key and improvising lyrics, but tonight she craved silence.

Sometime later she pulled into Fangtasia's packed parking lot and managed to find a single empty lot to slide her car into. When she walked through the front door Pam shot her a loaded look, but said simply, "He's in his office. _Alone_."

"Thanks, Pam." Pam sent her one of her I-am-so-beyond-any-of-this expressions before turning to offer the patrons behind her a canned greeting in a bored tone.

Sookie crossed the bar and stood at the closed door. She knocked once, knowing Eric had likely already heard her, or at the very least caught her scent.

"Enter."

She stepped inside the room, quietly clicking the door shut behind her. She allowed her purse to drop from her shoulder and slide to the floor, even that little bit of weight too much as she grappled with the heavy emotions coursing through her. Sookie crossed the room to stand in front of the desk he sat at.

His posture was proud, regal; his beautiful, wintery eyes revealing nothing. He'd reached that state of perfect vampiric stillness that always sent a chill through Sookie.

Her blood roared loud in her ears, her palms moist and sticky as she clutched and released her fingers, her breaths shallow and quick. She knew he read the signs of her body, that he knew her anxiety. That was fine. She didn't come before him with any type of pride. She just needed to show how sorry she was for the hurt she'd caused him. She needed them to end with some amount of respect and goodwill between them.

With him sitting and her standing she was nearly at eye level with him. She held his gaze and said, "I need to talk to you."

"Obviously." Stated sardonically, but with a sharp edge of malice. "Unless you've come for another reason? Perhaps you'd like me to feed from you? I can get you to make that breathy moan, just like the one you make before you come when I'm deep inside you."

"Stop. It." This mean nastiness wasn't like him. He was ruthless but seldom cruel, at least to her. She needed to sit, so she plopped with a distinct lack of grace into a nearby plush chair. "Look. I don't owe you nothin'. I made my intentions clear to both you and Bill. I can't be with either one of you. I won't choose either one of you."

"Yes, all of twenty-four hours ago." The still façade was gone; his voice was bitter.

Sookie could respond in outraged anger, and a part of her wanted to: he'd just been with someone else as well. But that wouldn't help anything. A tenderness for him welled up inside of her.

"Eric, something happened to me. Remember how I went to the Fairy realm, and a lot of time went by here but it only felt like a couple hours to me there?"

"Yes. And I alone waited for you, knowing you would return." It was true. Bill had given up on her, as had Jason.

"And that means a lot to me." Would always mean a lot to her. It was part of the reason she couldn't leave him believing she could so casually dismiss what they'd had. She had loved him. She loved him now. But it had evolved into a general sense of goodwill, something apart from herself. She wanted him alive, happy, and safe. If it was in him, and she didn't know if it was, she wanted him to find a true partner as she had. And if not, she wanted him surrounded by devoted friends. Like Pam.

"I traveled again, through realms. Well, actually more through time. That's where I met the man you saw me with. It has been weeks for me, and a lot happened during that time, things that brought him and me together." She hadn't realized until that moment she wouldn't reveal Talako's Fay heritage to Eric or the fact they were a mated pair. Eric was a political creature, a survivor. She believed with everything in her being he would never harm her. But she couldn't ensure the same immunity for Talako. She wouldn't risk his safety.

"Weeks, was it?"

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a steadying breath. "I'm not sure what to say, Eric. Do you want to hear you were constantly in my thoughts, in my heart? You were. You still are."

In a blur of motion, Eric moved from his chair to stand before her and clasped her in an embrace, his lips dropping down and nearly touching hers. His whispered words caused shallow, sharp cuts on her heart. "And you are in mine. Submit to me Sookie. Be mine."

She pulled away from him, and he let her. "I can't. I knew that before, and now I know it, I feel it even more. I'm his. He's mine. You and me, we were just never meant to be."

Eric turned from her, giving her his back. If he were any other man, Sookie would have thought he was concealing tears. She'd held him once, as he'd cried. After his maker chose to meet the sun. The memory brought another burst of warmth for him, a ball of pained affection expanding in her chest. She stretched out a single hand and laid it on his shoulder.

"Eric, I'll still be your friend as best I can. I'll be honest, I'd like to be well rid of vampire politics and all that mess. But if you need my help in some way, you let me know."

Eric nodded, but said nothing. After a moment of quiet, Sookie retreated to the door, stretching down to pick up her purse. She gave a final glance to his broad shoulders before she stepped out of Eric Northman's world, closing the door softly behind her.


	27. Chapter 27

Sookie made it home through the dark night. Each mile out of Shreveport had taken her farther away from the young woman she'd once been—a woman that looked for solace from the cacophony of the world's thoughts in the perfect silence of a vampire's cool presence. She walked into the house that Stackhouses had lived in for so many decades and felt a sense of self acceptance wash through her being. Dating vampires had been a way to avoid an elemental part of herself. But she didn't need to do that anymore.

As promised, Talako was waiting in her bed. She knew he was awake, both from his stiff posture and the buzz of his thoughts. She walked into the room with her shields dropped. She shared Eric's acceptance of her decision with Talako, as well as her promise to offer the Viking vampire help if he ever needed it. The rest was private, between herself and her former lover, and Talako didn't pry though she sensed prickles of jealousy running through his being. She was sorry for that, but couldn't do anything to change it.

"You've gotta take me as I am, Talako. I did some amount of living before I met you. My past is part of me." Part of her, but didn't define her.

"I know, lass. I know. It doesn't mean I have to be happy with the thought of you and any other man. But I'm proud of you. You're not seeing your abilities as a hindrance anymore." She felt his words as much as she heard them and sent him a dazzling smile since emotion closed up her throat.

Sookie unbuttoned her jeans and shimmied them off her legs. Then, under Talako's watchful gaze, performed the nifty feminine trick of removing her bra without taking off her shirt. There was heat there in his eyes and she felt an answering warmth build somewhere low in her belly, but she wasn't quite looking for _that _right now.

With a blissful sigh at being free of the restricting garments, she climbed into bed and aligned her body with Talako's, pressing her belly to his back and burrowing her nose into the nook between his shoulder and neck. She inhaled deeply, taking in his male scent of musk and salty skin, and figured this right here, this moment, was happiness.

Soon the two drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>Sookie awoke to the knowledge of a presence in the room. She and Talako had shifted sometime during the night—now he spooned her, his deep breaths steady and slow against the back of her neck. He slept on as she opened her eyes and studied the being illuminated in the open doorway of the bedroom. Perhaps it wasn't exactly illuminated as it was emanating its own light. The glow was the softest of blues, sending out soothing waves of benevolence and comfort that washed over Sookie's heart.<p>

She felt no rush, no sense of panic. No fear gripped her. For a good solid minute she simply looked at it, taking in its humanoid shape and noting its lack of defined facial features.

It was the Fay creature, she knew.

Its essence was familiar to her now, though she hadn't seen it in this manifestation before.

She untangled herself from Talako and lifted up from the bed, pulling her shirt as far down her thighs as it would go. Reaching for her old terrycloth robe, she nodded at the being and motioned for it to go out. It seemed to understand her intentions and allowed her room to pass through the doorway before following her out to the back porch.

Plopping down on the old wooden swing in the early dawn light and wishing mightily for a cup of strong black coffee, she turned to the creature hovering before her. "Well, are you gonna stay blue with no face? That might make it hard to have a conversation." She was still feeling the waves of peace and assurance, and despite how wonderful they felt she resented the way the thing was manipulating her emotions.

A gentle exhalation that might have been a sigh came from the being's general vicinity. Pretty impressive since it had no discernible mouth and likely didn't need to breathe to begin with.

Before Sookie could even blink the Fay spirit shifted into her grandmother. Anger and hurt erupted in her heart, slicing through the creature's imposed aura of serenity.

"No. Stop that. It's an insult to my gran." And it hurt something fierce, seeing her grandmother's beloved face but knowing she wasn't really there. A beautiful mockery.

The thing shifted once more, back into a blue, human-like shape. But its eyes were the ones she'd seen before when Talako and she had summoned it to return them to her time. Predator eyes. Watchful. Calculating. Eyes that Sookie suspected were close to the true essence of what this thing…this Fay guardian spirit, really was. It had goodness in it, hence the calming blue light, but the eyes showed its ability for darkness.

"Yin and yang." She hadn't meant to say it aloud, but realized it didn't matter since the creature was likely reading her thoughts anyway.

"Yes, Sookie Stackhouse. There is much truth in that comparison. I seek balance above all else, balance for your kind. Balance for the Fay."

"Is that why you're here? We didn't summon you?" Sookie asked it as a question since she wondered if they could have done it unintentionally. Talako was missing home, she knew, despite his happiness with her. Perhaps his simple desire to return to the familiar was enough to bring this thing back to them.

"No, you did not call me. Not exactly. But you, Sookie Stackhouse, are ready now when you were not ready before. That is why I have returned."

"What the hell does that even mean?" She knew her irreverent tone likely wasn't smart, considering the thing's power. But she figured part of its whole balance agenda included not blowing up Fay-human hybrids. She was beyond frustrated, and damn tired of supernatural beings hopping into her life and attempting to alter her destiny to suit their whims.

The Fay spirit was unfazed by her attitude. It coolly responded to her question. "I returned you to your time with your mate in tow so that you could appreciate the true extent of his devotion and fully accept him. This has come to pass. Now you must return to your original purpose."

Sookie anger left her and a strange calm remained as the creature finished speaking. She'd experienced this vacuum of emotion in the past, just before entering Supe battles. You push everything else aside, and focus on surviving.

"And what would that original purpose be?"

"To be among the Choctaw, to protect those with Fay blood from the slaughter they face."

"So you're saying we're supposed to go back again? Me and Talako? To stay?"

"Yes."

A riot of emotions ricocheted inside of her enmeshed with a jumble of disjointed thoughts. It surprised her to realize the notion of returning to Talako's people wasn't completely unwelcome.

"I need time. I need to take care of some things."

"You must depart soon if you are to intervene."

"A day. Give me a day." She knew flatly denying the creature would likely result in it immediately zapping her and Talako back to the Choctaw. But perhaps with a little time, she could come up with something.

"Very well. A day, this day. I will return at dusk."

The spirit evaporated, leaving Sookie alone in the bright morning light.


	28. Chapter 28

_Dear Bill,_

_I've been sitting and staring at a blank piece of paper for nearly twenty minutes, trying to find the right words and the right way to string them together to say to you what I need to. If it were you sitting down to write me a letter, I know you'd do it eloquently. You'd know exactly how to put things, and as I read it to myself I'd hear the words in your soothing, gentleman's voice. I always appreciated that you never held any of your learning and formal education over my head. Gracious. That's one of the words I'm looking for; you are gracious Bill Compton. Even when you became King you did your best to treat others fairly when so many other folks would have abused the power, would have used it to get back a little of their own from those that they had scores to settle with. I'll never forget the way you let Eric go. It was one of the noblest things I've ever seen. I'm not saying you're perfect, 'cause heaven knows none of us are. What I am trying to say is you are a good man. I know you don't often believe it of yourself; you're harder on yourself than anybody I know. But you, Bill Compton, are a good person. The fact that you're a vampire doesn't change that, if anything it just shows how strong you are, on the inside where it matters. _

_I forgive you for your deception when we first met. I'm letting it go, right here, right now, and I won't dwell on it again. What I'm keeping are the good times we shared. You were my first love, Bill. I'll always carry good thoughts of you. _

_This letter is my goodbye to you. When you get it tonight as the sun sets, I'll be somewhere else. Perhaps 'somewhen' else would be the right phrase. Though it ties into my Fay blood, I'm not going to a fairy realm. But I'll be safe and happy where I'm at, so don't worry about me. I can't say for sure, but I don't believe I'll be back. _

_The house is still in Eric's name, and that's fine. I know Jason doesn't want it. He hasn't felt the same about the place since Gran died. So don't worry about loose ends; I know you'd want to jump in and help, but it's all settled already. _

_Be happy, Bill. Let yourself be happy. _

_Love,_

_Sookie _

Sookie stared at the letter for several moments. It felt right and was as good as she could do with the short time she had today. Letter in hand, she walked over to her bookshelf and scanned the titles until she found what she was looking for. Pulling _The Complete Works of Sara Teasdale_ down from the second to top shelf, she blew off a fine layer of dust from the tome and fondly brushed her thumb across the gold embossed title. She flipped it open to the table of contents, and from there opened to the desired poem.

Her mind flashed back to the night Bill had given her the book. They were in his study in the hours before dawn. They'd made love several times earlier in the evening, and a quiet lethargy had settled in as they stared at the flames in the big, stone fireplace. Suddenly, Bill had broken the silence.

"Do you like poetry, Sookie?"

"Well, it's okay I guess." Her mind immediately went to her fourth grade year, and Miss Poras making them read Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." The class as a whole hadn't been keen on literary enrichment, but had managed some poetic flare in calling the teacher Miss Poor-Ass behind her back, and laughing heartily since her backside was actually quite large. Sookie hadn't been amused; too often she'd been on the receiving end of bullies' spiteful words. "It's not that I dislike it, I just never understood a lot of it." Sookie was a faithful public library patron, but her tastes ran to murder mysteries and juicy historical romances. 'Course, that had been somewhat ruined when her fairy cousin Clyde had started showing up on some of the covers. Eww.

"That's fair. Part of what I like about poetry, though, is it doesn't have to make sense. It speaks straight to the heart, so it's going to say something different to each person that reads it. Can I share a few favorites with you, Sookie?"

The way he'd said her name had sent goose pimples down her arms, and elsewhere. She'd smiled and nodded, and had pulled the cashmere throw high over her breasts and settled deeper into the cushions scattered on the floor. "Okay, sure. Go ahead."

Bill had stood up, all lean and graceful. She'd been treated to a nice view of his backside. He'd retrieved a single book from the shelf and then burrowed back beside her.

"This is one of my favorite poets, Sara Teasdale. In the early 20's, you know, I was still with Lorena. I was savage then. I'd completely surrendered to my vampiric nature." He'd said it in a straightforward tone, but there was an immense pain in his eyes. Sookie knew he still hadn't forgiven himself. She stayed quiet and waited.

"For decades I ignored any twinge of the human being I used to be. There was no room for compassion, for mercy. I was a killer—a very effective killer. I was a predator, and people were my prey. But I wasn't happy. I was restless. It didn't matter how many lives we took, how much blood we gorged ourselves on. Changes in scenery didn't help; we traveled across the whole country several times. It was me; I wasn't happy with myself. One evening we'd slaughtered an entire group of young people in a library, college students, so at that time, all male. Lorena was still playing with her food, refusing to let the last one die. His screams bothered me. I wandered around, browsing the shelves. I pulled a book of Ms. Teasdale's poems from the shelf by chance. I retired to a side room, away from the screeches of the dying boy, and read her poems. They were short. Seemingly simple. But they filled me with a sense of humanity I hadn't felt in such a very long time. Her words spoke of loneliness, of unhappiness, but also of moments of pure beauty. They helped me remember what it's like to a man. Not a monster."

At that point Sookie had reached over and embraced him. He'd pulled back, wiping away a single bloody tear. "This one is my favorite." And in his lovely Southern drawl he'd read:

**Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten, **

**Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold, **

**Let it be forgotten for ever and ever, **

**Time is a kind friend, he will make us old. **

**If anyone asks, say it was forgotten **

**Long and long ago, **

**As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall **

**In a long forgotten snow.**

Sookie tsked her tongue against her teeth. "But it's so sad."

"It surely is. At the time, that line about 'time making us old' was like being stabbed in the heart. Human beings were made to get older, to age, to someday die. Immortality is not natural. For a few moments I felt the weight of my damned soul, knew that I was an abomination to the natural workings of this world. But then I realized vampires are a part of nature. We exist, so we must be. Even we don't live forever. There is an end for us all. And all of our deeds and acts will eventually be gone, be forgotten, be no more. I thought about my dead family, long gone at that point. I thought about the trail of carnage my maker and I had left behind us. And I felt a fierce joy that all of that would someday fade into oblivion."

Sookie had lifted her palms to his cheeks, keeping his eyes as she fought her own tears. "I can't know what you've gone through, Bill. I can't understand. And I'm glad you were able to find some amount of peace in those words and that you changed the way you were living. But I believe something does remain. Love remains. It doesn't go away. It stays after everything else is gone."

He'd kissed her and his hands had moved frantically over her body. After that there'd been no more words for a long while.

Now, standing in sunlight, Sookie smiled and slipped the letter into the book on the same page as the poem that had so touched his heart those many years ago. She shouted out to Talako that she'd be right back, and sat off across the cemetery to Bill's. She'd place it on his front step. He'd understand. After everything else was gone, love remains.

**A/N- This chapter is for Demeter. I'm a Viking fan, always will be, but that doesn't mean Sookie and Bill didn't have something special and beautiful. First loves stay with us no matter what comes after. Wanted to make this a Bill-centric chappie. Also wanted to note in this AU Bill hasn't gone psycho or dissolved in a puddle of blood to rise as I don't know what. We'll get back to the rest of the preparation for Sookie and Talako's journey soon. Oh, and she wasn't lying to Bill when she said she'd be safe. Mostly. Promise ;o)**


	29. Chapter 29

She breathed in the aura of the old farmhouse, felt it fill her lungs and settle in her bones. She'd always carry some of the essence of this place with her, no matter where, or when, she went. That brought her some comfort to ease the painful knowledge that for the first time since its construction, not a single Stackhouse would abide here. It was the end of something bigger than herself, and she gave a moment of quiet reflection to honor that.

She could hear Gran's endearingly shrill voice in her head, _"Go on 'n git, girl. You gotta look forward, not back." _It was no ghost this time, no masquerading Fay creature; it was her own mind's tribute to the strong woman that had raised her—Gran's wisdom was another intangible that would remain with her. It was imbedded in her gut, there deep in her heart and in her mind. She might be going back to Talako's time and people empty handed, but within herself she carried riches. She and Talako _were_ going to help; they _would_ make a difference!

"We will, lass. We will." Whispered words, but fervent.

Talako wrapped his arms around her from behind, and dropped his head to rest on her shoulder, placing a single kiss on the sensitive flesh there.

Sookie looked down at their entwined hands, hers pale, his a rich brown in the late afternoon light. She rubbed her thumb lazily across his, enjoying the slide of skin. He was so warm and radiated strength and peace. She believed him. After the vision he'd shared with her this morning, after the creature's departure, she believed him.

They stood like that for a long while. Sookie Stackhouse watched the sunset for the last time from the front steps of her family's home, but she resolved there would be many more sunsets with this man beside her. The light was still in the horizon when the creature was before them. No poof, no noise, just empty space one moment and then its presence the next. Neither she or Talako startled.

"It is time. Come."

Across the yard, a vortex opened, its entrance twice as big as the first she had traveled through alone. The noise this one emitted was akin to a train roaring by. _Huh, it must take more energy to transport two._ Sookie had time for the single thought before the pull of the opening reached them. Air currents yanked at them, wanting them, and Sookie once again suspected the passageway had a consciousness of its own. They didn't fight the strong winds, they just held on to each other as best they could and worked at staying upright as they stumbled across the grass. When they were within a yard of the vortex, they lost the battle, and were swept off their feet and into the tunnel.

* * *

><p>They were in the forest and it was daytime. Though a country gal, Sookie was still confused by this unsettled wilderness. What she did know was they were nowhere near what would someday be the Stackhouse homestead.<p>

"You know where we are?"

"Not the exact location, no lass, but I have a general notion." Then he motioned with his head to the left. "There, that way to the river. We'll find our way from there."

Several hours later, Sookie and Talako walked into the Choctaw village, the birthplace of Talako's mother, and the community that still meant home for her mate, despite the traveling he did as a translator and ambassador. Sookie squeezed his hand tight when she felt his emotions well up through their connection. There for a time, he hadn't thought he'd see this place again.

"Yakpa!" Sookie gave a happy shout, and dropped Talako's hand, running to the older man. She wanted to wrap him in a bear hug, but at his startled expression, she settled for reaching for his arm and giving it a gentle squeeze with her fingers. Mindful of his arthritis, she didn't touch his hands, unsure if the healing she had performed was permanent.

"How long have we been gone?"

One gray brow rose. "Gone?" There was a good natured smile on his face, but a look of confusion in his eyes. Talako caught up with her, and the two men exchanged quick words in Choctaw.

"It's as if we never left, Sookie. We haven't even been gone a day." She shook her head in wonder. The workings of the vortices would never make sense to her. But it didn't matter. They were here now, together and with a mission.

"How is your daughter and grandchild, Yakpa?"

The man's face lit up. "Good. Good. Healthy and beautiful!" Yakpa showed them the small satchel he carried, already nearly filled with delicate shells that would someday adorn his granddaughter's dresses.

After several minutes of basking in his elder's joy, Talako reached up and clasped the man gently on the shoulder. "Yakpa. We must hold a gathering this evening. Sookie and I must share something, something very important, with the village." He spoke English, but Yakpa seemed to have no trouble understanding. He'd already been forming conjectures from the strange way Talako and Sookie had approached him. His thoughts revealed he knew something was amiss.

"I'll send word."

"Thank you."

Yakpa motioned to a group of older children playing nearby, and quickly instructed them to spread word of the night's meeting to their families. A dozen pair of bare feet scatter various directions to carry the news. Despite the seriousness they all faced, Sookie felt a smile tugging at her lips. _Ha, who needs cell phones or facebook or twitter!?_

Yakpa gave them a solemn look, but asked no questions, departing for his son's hut.

Sookie appreciated his trust and his patience.

"He is a good friend."

"Yes." A single word, but through their connection, Sookie was witness to the flood of remembrances that were pouring through her mate. After the loss of his parents, Yakpa had become a surrogate father to the hurting and angry youth Talako had once been. "He welcomed me at his fire when I had no family left."

Squeezing his hand, Sookie had no words. Through their bond, she flooded him with love and assurance.

Together, the couple walked to Talako's hut to finalize their plans.


	30. Chapter 30

Sookie helped the women gather wood for the communal fire they'd light this night. Though a punch line in the twenty-first century, the concept of 'women's work' was very much a part of everyday life in this place, here and now. Sookie didn't like it, but she didn't resent it either. In fact, she could relate to it from her own upbringing. Mama fixed the meals, and then later Gran. Youngins were served first, then menfolk, and women ate last after seeing to everyone else's needs. Old-fashioned? Yes. Sexist? Undoubtedly. But it gave her a basis of comparison as she worked alongside the other women, while a handful of men a stone's throw away lazed in front of Talako's hut, many smoking pipes.

Talako wasn't among them, luckily. She could be understanding of a culture's practices in general, and participate as part of the community—but if she was out here busting her hiney, _her _man should be working along beside her.

But he was otherwise engaged, she knew. Off doing what was pretty much the mystical equivalent of charging his battery—meditating in the forest. He'd need his powers at one hundred percent tonight, one hundred percent and then some. For her part, she was feeling ready. A quiet peace flowed through her.

Talako returned a few hours later, wrapping her up in a fierce bear hug. He smiled, picking up the phrase from her thoughts. "Bear, huh? And that's a good thing? Believe me, Sookie, you don't want to know a bear's embrace."

"It's just an expression. Besides, you did just come strutting outta the woods like a big ol' bear." He placed a chaste kiss on the corner of her smiling lips before pulling back. "You're sure, lass? You really want to do this? And now?" The vulnerability in his eyes, combined with the fierce joy she felt surging through him, made her heart ache in good and bad ways all at the same time.

"I choose you, Talako. I choose us. The circumstances are picking the when, but that doesn't matter."

He heard as well as felt her sincerity, and nodded once. She did her best to push her sense of peace and certainty into his being, apparently with some success.

Soon everyone gathered in the center of the village. A giant bonfire pushed away the murky shadows of dusk. Yakpa and his feisty wife, Ohoyo, were sitting next to Talako and Sookie, quiet but steady in their support. On the other side of the flames, Sookie could make out the familiar faces of Kannakli and his wife, Yakpa's daughter, with their infant in tow. The new mother offered Sookie a shy smile, and Sookie returned it. Though introverted, ironically the young woman was quite a loud mental broadcaster. Even yards away, and through the din of dozens of internal monologues, Sookie could hear her hoping that Sookie, as medicine woman, would bless her child. There was far too much going on right now, and about to occur, but Sookie made a mental note to ask Talako about it later, to find out if there was any sort of official ceremony or practices for such a thing.

As the last few stragglers took a seat on the packed earth, Talako stood, speaking in Choctaw to the assembled group. Despite the language barrier, Sookie could decipher his meaning through their connected flow of consciousness.

"_I am Talako, son of Immayhoka, She Who Conquests. I am Ethan McDowell, son of Edmond McDowell. I am one of you, brothers and sisters, with Choctaw blood running strong and true in my veins. You know I am of the Whites, and have lived in their world. But, my brothers and sisters, I tell you tonight I also am of the Sky People, the Fay, magical beings that are not human."_

There were loud murmurs throughout the crowd at this. The Choctaw, as a whole, were not a particularly religious people—they were governed by family, blood ties, and practicality, rather than the mystical. Sure, many believed in magic, but within the bounds of normal day to day life. A race of magical creatures was a stretch.

Yakpa's voice rose above the rumble, Sookie could understand him well enough. "Tell us, my son."

"_The Fay are different from us. They are long lived. A Fay male or female will be able to see the birth and death of many, many human generations. The Sky Fay have the power of the sun in their hands, and can shoot fireballs from their palms. The Fay have a land of their own. A secret place, that is just theirs. Their own sun, their own stars. No humans live there, no Choctaw, no Whites…except for a few that some of the Fay have taken from our land, from our world here. They keep them as spouses...or pets. The Fay come here, to our land, from time to time. Sometimes they don't abduct those they've mated with. The children of these unions grow up in our human land, but they carry some of the magic of the Fay in their blood, and pass it on to their children. My mother's blood held Fay magic, as did my father's, so it is strong in me. As it is strong in my mate's blood."_

He reached down to pull Sookie up beside him even as a cry broke the awed silence.

Masheli stumbled away from the group, features constricted in agony. The beautiful teenage girl had loved and lusted after Talako for a long while. Sookie was sorry for her pain, and wished her comfort. But never, never could she be sorry for her place by Talako.

"_Many of you have experienced my mate's magic. She's healed you, taken away your hurts."_ Here, he looked down at Yakpa, and the older man smiled widely in return, lifting his heavily veined hand and flexing it enthusiastically. _"She has other magic as well. We wish to share some of it with you right now, our combined magic. And to do this, we ask you to be witnesses to our marriage this evening."_


	31. Chapter 31

Talako stretched down, reaching for his leather satchel. He pulled out a gorgeous string of glass beads. The orbs were of the deepest ruby red, no two beads uniform in shape. They glimmered magnificently in the firelight. Reverently, Talako placed them at Ohoyo's feet. Then, reaching back into the satchel, he removed a leather loin cloth. Even without touching it, Sookie could see how soft the material was, and the barely visible stitches revealed master craftsmanship. Talako laid this at Yakpa's feet, before standing again, tall and proud.

"Sookie has no blood here. But you, Ohoyo and Yakpa, took her into your hut. In a way, during her time among the Choctaw, you have been as parents to her. As such, do you accept my suit for her?"

Yakpa nodded once, his mouth solemn though his eyes shone with great emotion. Next to him, Ohoyo grinned broadly, saying, "Yes! Yes!" The tiny woman radiated joy and enthusiasm, even as she angled her body away from Talako, not meeting his eyes. From this moment on, as Sookie's surrogate mother, she would no longer directly address Talako, her new son-in-law, or if she could help it, even go into the same dwelling as him—such was the ways of the Choctaw. Sookie knew of this custom, even if she didn't fully understand it, and it pulled at her heart that her marriage to Talako would so greatly impact the relationship between this fierce, beautiful elder, and the man that had been as a son to her for many years. Ohoyo projected only happiness, though. Sookie's eyes welled with emotion. She felt Talako's strong hand squeeze hers, and she knew he understood exactly.

Yakpa and Ohoyo's acceptance of the bridal gifts was enough for the Choctaw to consider the pair married, with no further ceremony needed, but Talako turned to Sookie, his own eyes shimmering. He kept Sookie's gaze, though he addressed the crowd. "To honor the other parts of our blood, Sookie and I would like to exchange words from my father's people, from her grandfather's people." The villagers remained quiet, expectant. Talako drew in a long, silent breath, and for several moments the only sounds were the pops and hisses of the bonfire. Then, with eyes only for Sookie, he made his vow to her.

"Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone.

I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One.

I give ye my Spirit, 'til our Life shall be Done."

A barely discernible hum encircled Talako and Sookie and radiated out through the crowd. It was the buzz of power; a static charge pulled at the fine hairs on Sookie's arm. She was unafraid. She faced her love, and repeated the vow back to him, meaning every syllable from the very depths of her being. As the final word left her lips, the humming, which had been gaining in strength, reached a crescendo, and the sphere of power shattered outward.

The assembled Choctaw were bathed in a healing and empowering energy. Gasps of surprise and awe filled the air, and then several shrill cries and masculine shouts erupted as the villagers took in the sight of two massive bald eagles taking flight into the night sky from the place Talako and Sookie had just stood.

* * *

><p>Wind! The female eyed her mate, thrilling at the expansive width of his spread wings against the moonlight. She glided just behind him, flowing on the same updraft. Above them a million pinpricks of light twinkled and shimmered, below them a rodent squeaked, begging to be a meal. Hunger! But it was not time for hunting. The need to roost filled her, weighed her down. Rest. They should be in their nest. She followed her mate, knowing his lead was true.<p>

* * *

><p>Talako managed to retain himself, to stay in whatever conscious state that allowed him to identify as a man, part human and part Fay. But he'd had practice, of course. Sookie hadn't, and he guessed her first shift must be much like his had been. He had fully become a bird of prey, his namesake, on every level. Even now, years after his first time, he felt a primal triumph that his mate soared by his side. <em>Ayeee!<em> His piercing eagle cry split the night even as he directed his female back to the firelight and the throng of human bodies. He fought the instinct that told him it was wrong, and landed among them. Donning his rumpled loin cloth, he hoped it had been good for her. He'd done his best to prepare her, but for some things, there are no words. He lifted her smock and shook the dirt from it, preparing to cover her as quickly as possible once she transitioned back to her woman form. Landing beside him, her shift was rapid. She smiled up at him, shaky but overjoyed. He pulled her to him in a tight embrace, and then turned to his people. Faces started back at him: with shock, with fear, with wonder. Some had fled.

"There is a story, among the Choctaw. We first heard it as children, and we continue to tell it to children today. The Eagle communes with the upper world of the Sun. He represents peace to us, wisdom. Often stories are much more than just stories. They are truth, or they contain great truth. Sookie and I stand before you tonight with a heavy truth in our hearts. I am the Eagle, and I am telling you our people are in danger. The peace that we enjoy, here and now, will end soon. A flood of destruction is coming. Many will die. Families will be destroyed. But Sookie and I, we can offer you protection. It will mean leaving this place, but that will happen no matter what. We can take you somewhere where you can build a new home, where we can promise you peace and safety for your children."

Kannakli shouted out, his voice a muddle of confusion and anger, "What do you mean, flood of destruction? What is going to happen?"

Sookie stepped forward, her newly handfasted connection with Talako granting her the Choctaw words. "The whites will break their peace treaties. Soon. They want to clear this land of Choctaw and other tribes, so more whites can come and live here. They will march everyone out of here in the middle of winter. Days and weeks of walking until your feet bleed. Your babies will die of starvation or disease. The elderly will freeze to death and be shoved to the side of the trail. When you finally get where they wanted you to go, you'll basically be prisoners. Those that live will never get to come back here, not in their lifetimes."

"We'll fight them!" This from an unknown youth, his voice crackling in the between place of boyhood and becoming a man.

"You'll die. Anybody that fights back will die. You can't match their guns, or horses. Their numbers."

"We'll hide." A soft, feminine voice. Sookie's eyes settled on Kannakli's wife.

"There will be no place to hide. Think of your baby." Sookie's voice shook with emotion, her palms glowing with her distress.

The young woman gasped, but then recovering, nodded. Kannakli jerked toward her in surprise. The new mother stood and spoke, her voice quiet at first but gaining strength. "I believe in the wisdom of the Eagle and his mate. I want my daughter to live, to grow up and be safe, and to someday have her own children. I will leave with Talako and Sookie, and go to this new place."

Chaos erupted, dozens of people proclaiming loyalty, a few shouting their doubts. Finally, Talako shouted, "Enough! Sookie and I have shared our magic with you, we've shared our knowledge. Know this! You are my people, and I would do everything in my power to keep you safe. But I won't do it against your will. You will choose. At dawn, seven days from now, Sookie and I will leave this place. Those that choose to, are welcome to come with us. Know that we will not return. But you will live. If you stay, you will likely die. You will, no matter what, be forced to leave here and be marched away by the whites. I promise you, that is the truth. Our sister tribes are all within three days of us. I know many of you have family and loved ones among them. Go and get them, bring them here. They are welcome to leave with us too. I have no more to say."

With that, Talako departed, tightly clasping Sookie's hand to draw from her strength.

**A/N- **

I did not write the vow Talako and Sookie exchanged, it is a traditional Celtic marriage vow. But who's to say those ancient Celts didn't get it from the Fay? ;o) 'Talako' means eagle in Choctaw, and Choctaw legend has it that the great bird travels between worlds. One fact I find particularly beautiful is eagles mate for life.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 resulted in nearly 50,000 Native Americans being forcibly removed from their homelands, with many perishing during the process. While writing Sookie's response to the outraged youth, that fighting back was hopeless and flight was the only means of survival, I cringed and wondered, "Really?" With Talako and Sookie's powers combined, could they have turned the tides and reshaped history? Perhaps. But I myself couldn't envision it. The treatment of Native Americans is a dark, ugly blight on our history, but it has shaped up as a nation. And a nation contributes much to an individual. Would Sookie be Sookie, born in the 21st century of this altered universe? Again, perhaps, but it is too much of a paradox for my noggin. :o)

Today in Mississippi, there is a band of Choctaw living on their ancient homeland. In 2008 the state deeded them land containing Nanih Waiya, an ancient earthwork mound, holy to the Choctaw as their place of origin in traditional stories.


	32. Chapter 32

The opening in the roof of Talako's hut revealed a night sky with pinpricks of starlight dimmed by cloud cover.

The fortnight had passed quickly. Sookie sniggered to herself. _Fortnight_! She'd been picking up more Choctaw words as the days passed, and apparently the English vernacular of this time was seeping into her vocabulary as well. Just yesterday a boy no older than four had tutored her in numbers, holding his dimpled hand up to her, counting off each finger. _"Achaffa…tuklo…tuchena."_ It didn't seem to matter the language, the familiar cadence of ticking off numbers was there in the child's voice, as it had been and would be for a thousand thousand other children. It was both endearing and heartening, and she'd done her best to learn from her young teacher. At one point she was aware she was being observed, and she looked up past the intent features of the boy to see Talako watching them. She'd offered him a wide smile, reveling in the waves of joy she could feel emanating out from him despite their distance. For a moment she allowed herself to think of what a child of theirs might look like, might be like, and then she neatly tucked the thought away. Later. But perhaps not too much later.

It would be dawn soon. They were leaving today.

Sookie rolled over on their mat, snuggling further into Talako's warmth. She knew sleep wouldn't return, so she allowed her buzzing mind freedom to roam. Dozens of people had poured into the village over the last few days, kin and friends. Sookie had been mildly surprised to see a few pale faces in the crowd. Talako had offered her a gentle reprimand. "Aye lass, family is family. If my da' were alive, you'd see his shaggy red hair amid the sea of black."

She'd reached up to caress his lovely dark hair. "I know. I don't know why I'm surprised. I guess I've been very focused on what is going to happen to the Choctaw and to other tribes, and didn't think about what it would mean for the whites who love them, who are their family." She just hadn't thought about it before. What if a white man was married to a Choctaw woman? Would she still be forced to leave, to walk the infamous Trail of Tears? Would she be able to remain with her husband? For all the reading and research she did, Sookie realized there was much she didn't know. And it was very different, to sit in your cozy living room and look up history on the internet as you sipped your iced tea, than it was to _be_ in a situation, to actually be living it. To have so many lives depending on you.

For a moment, the weight of their task had affected her physically. The air seemed to be heavier as she struggled to draw it into her lungs, her heart had stuttered and then raced, and black dots had started to dance at the edge of her vision. Talako had pulled her out of what likely would have been a full-blown panic attack by bending down and pressing his warm lips to her neck. "Breathe, Sook. Just breathe."

Somehow a snort of laughter had escaped her. "Since when do you call me Sook? What happened to lass or wench?"

Now Talako was the one making sounds of amusement. "I have never called you wench. You must be getting me mixed up with the men in your tales."

"They're romance novels."

"They're explicit rubbish." But he said it with a grin.

Damn, she was going to miss the public library. And just like that, with the help of his closeness and a few words, her fears and worries abated. They didn't disappear, but now they were manageable.

"Thank you," she'd whispered, before stretching up to place her lips to his.

She could feel Talako stirring next to her. She knew his sleep patterns now, knew his body. He wasn't fully awake yet, but would be soon.

Sookie pulled away from Talako and lifted her arms above her head as she pointed her toes and stretched away the last of her sleepiness. She was ready for today.

Standing, she crossed the small space to the reed flap over the door, and lifted it away a few inches to peek outside. The barest hint of dawn was visible on the horizon through the tree line. Sookie could see some folks already up moving around. She dropped the flap and turned back to Talako. He was sitting up now, offering her a sleepy smile.

They'd made all of their final preparations the night before, so it was a simple matter to get dressed and to eat a quick meal of oatcakes and dried berries. No tea, they didn't want to bother with a fire. Talako folded up their sleeping mat while Sookie tidied up after their meal. A few villagers had already shared their decision to stay. Tearful goodbyes had been said. It was possible someone, or even a whole family, would move into the dwelling. Sookie wished them the very best. But she wished even more that they would have chosen to go with her and Talako and the others.

"Ready lass?"

"Yeah, I am." She meant it.

They stepped outside and made their way to the center of the village where their wedding ceremony had taken place two weeks before. A large group was already assembled, and was growing by the minute. As Talako and Sookie stepped among them, people instinctually stepped back, giving them both room. Thinking about the power they were about to summon, Sookie figured that was probably a pretty wise move.

A short while later, as the sun started to push up into the early morning darkness, Talako addressed his people. "My heart is happy that so many of you have come today. We will start a new life in a new place, and we will be safe. Our children will be safe. Do not be afraid of this journey we will take. It will be swift, and we will arrive in our new home, together.

No voices arose, either with questions or in protest. All of that had already been hashed out, much of it repeatedly. Instead, a quiet expectation filled the air.

Sookie reached for Talako's hands with each of hers. Their mental connection was constant now since their marriage, no barriers between them. But physical touch amplified it. She closed her eyes. Her awareness of the group faded away as she sought to join the currents of energy within her to Talako's, just like they'd practiced. Within moments, a ball of power exploded between them and hovered in the air above their joined hands. Even through her closed lids, the light was blinding. Vaguely, she could hear cries of alarm around her. But everything was as it should be.

She felt the presence of the Fay spirit, its unique mental imprint pressing at their brains. But when she opened her eyes, squinting through the light of the fireball, she couldn't see him…it, anywhere. But it was there, or its power was there, contributing to the sphere. The globe between them grew and lifted higher as it expanded. Now the yellow and orange flames flickered with spiraling strands of pink, purple, and blue. Sookie thought it must be much like looking into galaxy from one of those super powerful telescopes, only a thousand times more intense and bright.

The light no longer hurt her eyes. It enveloped her, Talako, and the others. She didn't just see the brightness and the different colors; she felt each hue. The yellows and oranges were pulsing and warm. The blues and purples were soothing, a cooling balm to the pleasant, but intense bursts of heat. The hot and then cool sensations cycloned around them, growing and growing in intensity, licking at their skin and whipping their hair about. She met Talako's eyes as the power globe reached a crescendo, and then exploded upward into the sky. Their gazes followed it, and Sookie registered it was a tunnel. A wormhole, really, a passageway of light.

Like the other vortexes she'd traveled, there was a sense that it had an awareness, that it was a conscious entity. Unlike the other vortexes, there wasn't a sense of pulling, of taking her, or any of them against their wishes. Those that chose to traverse this path would do so of their own free will.

Smiling, feeling sheer love and peace fill her heart, Sookie squeezed Talako's hands tight before dropping one so they walk side by side into the center of the tunnel just a few feet away, showing the others how to begin their journey. Once they reached the eye of the swirling power, the Choctaw watched the Eagle and his mate lifted away in a sea of color, and those that were brave of heart followed.

_**A/N- We shall leave our couple there, embarking on a new journey filled with as many possibilities as stars fill the night sky. Thank you to those that have stuck with this very, very AU story. Thank you to those of you that have taken the time to leave your thoughts, or even just a few words of encouragement, in a review. And thank you even to those that never reviewed, but alerted or favorited Let It Be Forgotten. It was nice to know you were there :O) It was an honor to learn more about the Choctaw culture as I researched for this story. **_


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